DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States attacked three sites in Iran early Sunday, inserting itself into Israel’s war aimed at destroying the Iranian nuclear program in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe that prompted fears of a wider regional conflict as Tehran accused Washington of launching “a dangerous war.”
U.S. President Donald Trump asserted that Iran’s key nuclear sites were “completely and fully obliterated” in an address to the nation from the White House.
Hours later, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the time for diplomacy had passed and that his country had the right to defend itself, saying the U.S. had “crossed a very big red line.”
“The warmongering, a lawless administration in Washington is solely and fully responsible for the dangerous consequences and far reaching implications of its act of aggression,” he told reporters in Turkey in the first comments by a high-ranking Iranian official since the strikes.
Iran is a close ally of Russia, and has actively supported it in its war on Ukraine, supplying it with attack drones. Araghchi said he would be flying immediately to Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin “and coordinate our positions.”
