Within the hours after its army strikes on Iranian nuclear websites, U.S. officers advised Iran should embrace a diplomatic off-ramp fairly than selecting to retaliate.
“Iran, the bully of the Center East, should now make peace,” President Donald Trump stated late Saturday in an tackle to the nation, flanked by Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“This can’t proceed. There will likely be both peace or there will likely be tragedy for Iran far better than we have now witnessed over the past eight days,” Trump stated.
U.S. officers on Sunday morning doubled down on the president’s message, calling for a diplomatic course of and threatening Iran with further army motion ought to it select to retailiate for the U.S. assault.
Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks throughout a information convention on the Pentagon, June 22, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures
Vance advised the U.S. was not desirous about a broader warfare or a battle past its strikes on the Iranian nuclear program.
“We’re not at warfare with Iran; we’re at warfare with Iran’s nuclear program,” Vance stated on ABC Information’ “This Week.”
At a Pentagon news conference, Hegseth stated the nuclear program was “the road the president set” and that the “overwhelming” army motion ought to invite peace.
“Iran, in that sense, has a selection,” Hegseth stated. “However we have made it very clear to them — that is nuclear websites, that is nuclear capabilities. That is the road that the president set, and we set that again.”
“Now could be the time to return ahead for peace,” he stated.
The protection secretary didn’t make clear any potential parameters for negotiations however stated the U.S. was sending messages on to Iran and “giving them each alternative to return to the desk.”
“They perceive exactly what the American place is, exactly what steps they’ll take to permit for peace, and we hope they accomplish that,” he stated.
Hegseth stated the scope of the U.S. assault — which struck three nuclear websites together with the uranium enrichment facility positioned deep underground in Fordo — was “deliberately restricted” and never aimed toward “regime change.”
Trump ordered that the offensive “is most actually not open-ended,” Hegseth stated, calling the assault “a targeted, highly effective and clear mission on the destruction of Iranian nuclear capabilities.”
“These have been the targets. That is what was struck. That was overwhelming,” the protection secretary stated.
Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers, advised reporters on the Pentagon on Sunday that the U.S. was ready for a possible response from Iran.
Caine stated “any Iranian retaliation or proxy assaults…could be an extremely poor selection,” and Hegseth famous U.S. and allies’ property close to Iran.
The secretary stated the strikes — which included 14 huge ordnances flown by seven stealth bombers — “devastated” their targets and left Tehran’s nuclear ambitions “obliterated.”
Caine stated a injury evaluation was “way too early” to report, however stated the operation had “severely broken” the focused amenities.
The president advised Saturday that Iranian retaliation would quantity to an escalation and would warrant U.S. assaults which might be “far worse” than the strikes on nuclear websites.
As an alternative, Trump, Vance, Rubio and Hegseth are signaling to Iran that it ought to return to the negotiating desk to debate Iran’s nuclear program.
The U.S. and Iran held 5 rounds of diplomatic talks — with a sixth spherical scheduled — earlier than Israel attacked Iran final week and the U.S. joined with strikes of its personal on Saturday.
“I believe it’s irrelevant to ask Iran to return to diplomacy as a result of we have been in the course of diplomacy,” Iranian Overseas Minister Abbas Araghchi stated Sunday.
“We have been in the course of talks with america when [the] Israelis blew it up. And once more, we have been in the course of talks and negotiation with Europeans, [which] occurred solely two days in the past in Geneva, when this time People determined to blow it up,” he stated,– referencing his rapidly organized conferences with European leaders on Friday.
“So we have been in diplomacy. However we have been attacked,” he added.
Rubio, America’s prime diplomat, characterised these talks as delaying techniques by Tehran.
“They play too many video games,” he stated Sunday on Fox Information. “They use diplomacy to cover behind and obfuscate and suppose they’ll purchase themselves time. They suppose they’re cute, they are not cute, they usually’re not going to get away with these items, not beneath President Trump.”
Rubio stated repeatedly that regime change was not the target of the assaults, however he advised a renewed Iranian nuclear buildup would change Washington’s calculus.
“If Iran is dedicated to changing into a nuclear-weapons energy, I do suppose it places the regime in danger. I believe it will be the top of the regime in the event that they tried to do this,” he stated.
