Iran Vows To Continue Nuclear Activities Amid Threat Of More Israeli Strikes

Update0930ET: There are emerging reports of possibly more waves of Israeli attacks, with state media reporting new, loud blasts heard near an airbase in west Iran. Netanyahu has vowed to keep up the attacks ‘as long as necessary’ to degrade and destroy Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran has long defended as only for peaceful nuclear energy purposes.

Importantly, Iranian leaders have made clear their intent to continue enriching uranium, and even to potentially expand its nuclear activities. Israeli attacks “will not affect our determination” to continue nuclear activities in Iran, state TV reports, as cited in Bloomberg.

Iran’s spokesperson for the Atomic Energy Organization Behrouz Kamalvandi confirmed damage as a result of Israel’s attack on Natanz nuclear site. He claimed that most of the damage is limited to the surface, and that there were no casualties at the stie. There have been no signs of a radiation breach as of yet, the IAEA has said in follow-up. And Al Jazeera writes:

Fars news agency reports “unofficial statistics” saying that more than 70 people were killed and more than 320 were injured in Israel’s attacks.

Fars is managed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and considered semi-official state media of the Iranian government.

Trump to WSJ on the impact on markets:

“I think ultimately, it would be great for the market because Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. … Iran won’t have a nuclear weapon that was a great threat to humanity.”

Legacy defining moment for Trump.

He bragged about being the only President in a generation who didn’t start any new wars.

If he gets America involved in a new Middle East, regime change war… he failed.

— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) June 13, 2025

Trump was “pretending”…

Axios is reporting that Trump was publicly pretending to oppose an Israeli attack on Iran. pic.twitter.com/R7s9C1dgC5

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) June 13, 2025

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Up until yesterday the Trump White House had been publicly distancing itself from any potential Israeli attack on Iran. But that major attack did occur overnight, reportedly involving over 200 Israeli warplanes, as well as potential intelligence-assisted drone attacks on the ground conducted by Mossad assets.

And yet following days of contradictory messaging coming from the White House, President Trump has told ABC news early Friday that “there’s more to come” in terms of Israeli military action that the operation was “excellent”. ABC’s Jonathan Karl writes:

I just spoke to President Trump and asked him about the Israeli attack on Iran. Here’s what he told me: “I think it’s been excellent.  We gave them a chance and they didn’t take it. They got hit hard, very hard. They got hit about as hard as you’re going to get hit. And there’s more to come. a lot more.”

Washington and Tehran were literally days away from the next round of nuclear negotiations, and this certainly wasn’t the messaging Trump was sending just over 24 hours ago.

Either he could be trying to save face as Israel perhaps went rogue, or the more likely scenario is that Washington quietly approved what Israel is defending as a ‘preemptive attack’ to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons (a narrative Tel Aviv has been pushing going back to the 1990s).

And more from Trump on Friday morning, as the smoke still smolders over Tehran and Iranian nuclear energy sites in other parts of the country:

This certainly isn’t going to hasten negotiations, it is their death knell, and Iran has issued a statement saying it holds the United States responsible for last night’s attack and destruction.

Iran has said it is preparing a “harsh response” – with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warning that Israel faces a “bitter and painful” fate. “By God’s will, the powerful hand of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic will not let it [Israel] go unpunished,” he said Friday.

Government and residential buildings in Iran were damaged, and as we reported earlier, top nuclear scientists and military officials were targeted and in some instances killed, most importantly the head of IRGC, General Major Gen. Hossein Salami.

⚡️Satellite images of the Natanz nuclear enrichment complex following Israeli strikes pic.twitter.com/Lb9ItZIrQD

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) June 13, 2025

Al Jazeera has listed that trikes have been confirmed in the following locations:

• The capital, Tehran, and military sites in the surrounding area.
• The city of Natanz, where explosions were reported at the main uranium enrichment facility.
• The city of Tabriz, where explosions have been reported near a nuclear research centre and two military bases.
• The city of Isfahan, south of Tehran.
• The city of Arak, southwest of Tehran.
• The city of Kermanshah, west of Tehran.

Iran has already appointed a new IRGC leader, per WSJ. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour has been placed in charge of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Maj. Gen. Sayyed Abdolrahim Mousavi has made chief of staff of the armed forces, while Lt. Gen. Ali Shadmani was named to succeed Lt. Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid. How it allegedly unfolded, per Israeli sources cited in the WSJ:

The majority of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps air force leadership was killed by an Israeli military strike, according to defense minister Israel Katz.

The group were convening in an underground bunker, the minister said in a statement. Israeli intelligence determined that overnight, senior air force leaders were in an underground meeting preparing to attack Israel, the Israeli military said in a statement.

Fighter jets struck the location, killing Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the air force. Along with him, Israel killed the commander of Iran’s UAV force and the commander of aerial command, the military said.

Major fire near Tabriz Airport in Iran after attack…

⚡️ A major fire broke out near Tabriz Airport in Iran. pic.twitter.com/tmkKzl2sPL

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) June 13, 2025

In a remarkable revelation (if true), the Wall Street Journal describes an operation that’s parallel to both Ukraine’s ‘Operation Spider’s Web’ and Israel’s covert pager bombings of Hezbollah:

Long before Israel launched its attacks against Iran on Friday, agents from Mossad smuggled explosive drones and other guided weapons into Iran. As the attack got under way, Mossad assets on the ground used the drones and other weapons to attack Iran’s air-defense system and ballistic-missile launchers: WSJ

Fox News’ Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst writes:

On the strikes against IRGC Air Force leadership: Israel tricked the top command of Iran’s air force into a meeting and then kept them there, I’m told by an Israeli security official.

“We did specific activities to help us understand things about them and then used that information to make them act in a specific way,” the official said. “We knew this would make them meet, but more importantly we knew how to keep them there.”

The Israeli army said it had damaged the Natanz uranium enrichment site’s underground structures. It says that “vital infrastructure at the site that allows for its continuous functioning and the continued advancement of the Iranian regime’s project to obtain nuclear weapons was attacked.”