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The U.S. had struck three Iran nuclear enrichment sites earlier on Jun. 22.
June 22, 2025, 11:49 AM
United States President Donald Trump addressed his country and the world on Jun. 22 (Singapore time) in the aftermath of his decision to strike several of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
“Spectacular military success”
Trump delivered a brief four-minute speech flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth.
He confirmed that the U.S. had carried out “massive precision strikes” on three Iranian nuclear facilities, that of Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan, describing Iran’s nuclear program as a “horribly destructive enterprise”.
Trump said the U.S.’s objective was the “destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity, and a stop to the nuclear threat” posed by Iran, which he described as “the world’s number one state sponsor of terror”.
He said the strikes were a “spectacular military success” and that Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities “have been completely and totally obliterated”.
Peace or tragedy
He called on Iran, which he described as “the bully of the Middle East”, to make peace, threatening that future strikes would be “far greater and a lot easier”, later suggesting that the three facilities hit were by far the most difficult targets.
He blamed Iran and Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassemi Soleimani for over a thousand deaths of U.S. personnel; he said he had decided long ago he would not let this happen.
Soleimani was killed in Iraq by a targeted U.S. airstrike ordered by Trump in 2020
He paid tribute to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said both of them worked as a team, “perhaps like no team has ever worked before”, and Israel’s military for the “wonderful job” they had done.
He then credited the U.S. military for conducting a strike “the likes of which the world had not seen in many, many decades”.
“Hopefully, we will no longer need their services in this capacity. I hope that’s so,” and later adding that “there’s no military in the world that could have done what we did”.
“There will be either peace, or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days,” he said, referring to the bombing campaign carried out against Iran by Israel since Jun. 13.
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Peace through strength
Netanyahu spoke at his own press conference, crediting Trump for deciding to use the U.S.’s awesome and righteous might” to “change history”.
He said that he and Trump often said, “Peace through strength, first comes strength, then comes peace”.
President Trump and I often say: ‘Peace through strength.’
First comes strength, then comes peace.
And tonight, @realDonaldTrump and the United States acted with a lot of strength. pic.twitter.com/7lTWCZkgw7
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) June 22, 2025
Netanyahu described Iran as the “world’s most dangerous regime” and said that Trump’s decision prevented it from getting the “world’s most dangerous weapons”.
“Dangerous escalation”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the US strikes on Iran as a “dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge – and a direct threat to international peace and security”.
“There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control – with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region, and the world,” Guterres said in a statement.
“At this perilous hour, it is critical to avoid a spiral of chaos. There is no military solution. The only path forward is diplomacy. The only hope is peace,” he said.
Top image via White House/YouTube
