Washington/Tehran, June 22 (UNI) Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Sunday said that the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities were “outrageous” and “will have everlasting consequences.”
Tehran “reserves all options” to retaliate, said the minister.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has detected the launch of missiles from Iran after U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
“A short while ago, sirens sounded in several areas across Israel following the identification of missiles launched from Iran toward the State of Israel,” the IDF said on Telegram.
The Israeli army added that an air raid alert has been declared in some regions of Israel and ordered residents to take shelter in protected areas.
The Israel Airports Authority said in a statement earlier that Israel has closed its airspace after the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear sites, although land crossings with Egypt and Jordan are operating normally.
“Israel’s airspace is closed to entry and exit. The public should stay updated with the airlines. Land crossings to Sinai and Jordan are operating as usual,” the statement said.
The Iranian state media reported that there were “no signs of contamination” at the nuclear sites at Esfahan, Fordo and Natanz after U.S. airstrikes, quoting a statement from the country’s National Nuclear Safety System Center.
“There is no danger to the residents living around the aforementioned sites,” the statement said.
U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier on Saturday that the United States has completed attacks on three nuclear sites in Iran, including “Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan.”
“All planes are now outside of Iran’s airspace. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow,” he said on the social platform Truth Social.
Tehran must agree to “end this war,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after the strikes.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency acknowledged attacks on the country’s nuclear facilities. Iran had evacuated these three nuclear sites “a while ago,” said Hassan Abedini, deputy political director of Iran’s state broadcaster, adding that Iran “didn’t suffer a major blow because the materials had already been taken out.”
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization confirmed the U.S. attacks, but said its work will not be stopped.
“The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran assures the great Iranian nation that despite the evil conspiracies of its enemies, with the efforts of thousands of its revolutionary and motivated scientists and experts, it will not allow the development of this national industry, which is the result of the blood of nuclear martyrs, to be stopped,” the agency said in a statement issued after Trump announced the U.S. attacks.
In its strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, the United States used the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb, known as the “bunker buster,” local media quoted two sources familiar with the operation. B-2 bombers are the only aircraft capable of carrying the bombs, said the report.
Trump and his team were in touch with top congressional Republicans before the strikes, but did not brief top Democrats on his plans until after the bombs had been dropped, the report added.
The attacks marked a historic escalation in the Middle East. It may provoke retaliation from Tehran against U.S. troops and military installations across the region, said the report.
A senior official from Yemen’s Houthi group said in a social media post early Sunday that it would hold Trump responsible for the attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities.
“Trump must bear the consequences,” Houthi political bureau member Hizam al-Assad posted on X. Prior to the U.S. attacks, the Houthi group said in a statement that it would target U.S. ships if Washington attacks Iran.
“If America is involved in the attack and aggression against Iran … the armed forces (Houthi forces) will target its ships and battleships in the Red Sea,” Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said
in the statement, aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Trump on Sunday after the U.S. attacks, calling it a “bold decision to target Iran’s nuclear facilities.”
Trump had created a “pivot of history,” he added.
The U.S. air raids on Iran came on the ninth day after Israel launched attacks on Iran on June 13.