Iran has warned the US to brace for retaliation after Donald Trump’s administration joined Israel in its war against Tehran, tearing up his isolationist foreign policy and launching the most consequential intervention in a conflict in a generation.

Almost a day after US strikes targeting three key Iranian nuclear sites, Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, told France’s Emmanuel Macron: “The Americans must receive a response to their aggression,” signalling a potential Iranian reprisal that could drag the US into a new, protracted conflict in the Middle East.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said he planned to fly to Moscow to meet Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, on Monday morning for consultations. Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said any country used by the US to strike Iran “will be a legitimate target for our armed forces,” the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

On Sunday night, acting US ambassador Dorothy Shear told an emergency meeting of the UN security council that “any Iranian attack – direct or indirect – against Americans or American bases will be met with devastating retaliation.”

She said at the meeting, called by Iran, that the US acted in defence of Israel and American citizens to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon after it “obfuscated” about its nuclear weapons program and “stonewalled good-faith efforts in recent negotiations”.

Iran’s UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani called the US and Israeli strikes “a clear and flagrant breach of international law”, and suggested Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had managed to get Trump to do the west’s “dirty work”, “dragging the United States into yet another costly and baseless war”.

Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said “the US has opened a Pandora’s box” and “No one knows what new catastrophes and suffering it will bring.”

On Sunday night, the US president welcomed the return of the US B-2 bombers to Missouri after the strikes, as questions emerged about the degree of success they achieved.

Vice-president JD Vance appeared to tone down Trump’s claim that the sites had been “completely and totally obliterated” when he conceded on a US Sunday talkshow that he believes the US may have only “substantially delayed” Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon.

Vance said that the US was not “at war with Iran” but “at war with Iran’s nuclear program.” That appeared to be an effort to cool anxieties on the Maga wing of the Republican party that the US could be getting into another “forever war” that could stray, unwittingly, into regime change.

Trump himself raised that prospect on Sunday, sending out another message: “It’s not politically correct to use the term, “Regime Change,” but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!

Separately, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his forces were progressing toward its goal of destroying Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile threats. “We are moving step after step to achieve these goals. We are very, very close to completing them,” he said.

Earlier, Trump insisted the airstrikes were a limited intervention, urged Tehran to negotiate an end to its attempts to build a nuclear weapon and warned that striking US troops would lead to a brutal US military campaign.

But after one of the most fateful decisions of his second administration, the question of whether the US will become embroiled in a drawn-out war in the Middle East – something he had promised to avoid – now appears to be in the hands of senior officials in Tehran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

World leaders urged restraint from both sides and a return to diplomacy to prevent the conflict from spiralling out of control. Western governments called for a return to the negotiating table, while China and Russia condemned the strikes and said they undermined global security.

Israel continued to strike targets in Iran on Sunday, claiming that about 30 jets flew sorties against dozens of military targets in Iran, including the Imam Hussein strategic missile command centre in the Yazd area, the first against the long-range missile site.

Iranian officials signalled that they would consider disrupting maritime trade in the strait of Hormuz or launching strikes against one of dozens of US bases in the region, as its leadership seeks to project strength after an embarrassing series of raids by Israeli and now US warplanes that have operated over the country virtually unopposed.

Senior Pentagon officials said the surprise overnight US attack inflicted major damage and destruction on the nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

In a press conference in Washington, Gen Dan Caine, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, detailed Operation Midnight Hammer, in which seven B-2 Spirit bombers flew 18 hours from the US to sites in Iran to drop 14 GBU-57 massive ordnance penetrators.

Caine said it was not clear whether Iran retained some nuclear capability and he stopped short of using the same language as Donald Trump, who said when announcing the strikes on Saturday night that the sites had been “completely and totally obliterated”. The scale of the damage underground was not yet confirmed, Caine said.

Iranian sources were quick to deny that the country’s nuclear programme was devastated. Senior sources told Reuters that most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow had been moved elsewhere before the attack. The claim could not immediately corroborated.

Satellite imagery of the attack site from Maxar Technologies showed six fresh craters at the Fordow nuclear enrichment site, probably the entry point for the “bunker buster” bombs meant to penetrate deep into the facility before detonation.

Iran launched about 20 ballistic missiles at Israel on Sunday morning, triggering countrywide air raid sirens and injuring 16 people.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said in a recorded statement aired on state television after the strikes: “The Iranian nation is not one to surrender. Americans should know that any military involvement by the US will undoubtedly result in irreparable damage to them.”

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said diplomacy was not an option after the US attack and that Iran “reserves all rights to defend its security, its interests and its people”.

He said at a press conference in Istanbul: “My country has been under attack, and we have to respond based on our legitimate right to self-defence. We will do that for as long as needed and necessary.”

Araghchi said the US had “blown up diplomacy” that Tehran had been engaged in with Europe and said he would meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday.

Iran’s parliament on Sunday approved a measure allowing the country’s leadership to close the strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping route from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea that handles about 20% of the global oil trade.

An Iranian move to block the strait would be “massively escalatory”, said Andrew Borene, a former senior staff officer in counter-terrorism at the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence. “It would disrupt anywhere from 20 to 25% of every barrel of oil in global trade,” said Borene, now executive director of global security at Flashpoint, a threat intelligence firm.

But he argued Iran would probably suffer more than its adversaries from such a move, potentially alienating regional allies who have remained publicly neutral in the Israel-Iran conflict. The closure would more immediately cut off Arab neighbours including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait from international markets, he said.

“I think it ends up being worse for the Iranians than for anyone else,” Borene said. “You’re going to cut off your Arab neighbours from their ability to export … I have to think that runs the risk that you have now converted Arab neutrals into Arab Iranian adversaries.”

While the final decision rests with the country’s leadership and not its pliant legislature, the parliament’s move indicated an Iranian threat to disrupt global energy shipping.

It was unclear whether an Iranian response would include its network of proxies across the Middle East, including militias such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. On Saturday, the Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree pledged to attack US ships and warships in the Red Sea if the US intervened in Iran. The group agreed a ceasefire with the US in May.

US officials said they were sending signals to Iran to encourage it to negotiate rather than launch a retaliation that could escalate into a protracted war.

Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, denied that the US was pursuing a policy of regime change in Iran. “This mission was not and has not been about regime change,” he said. “Anything can happen in conflict. We acknowledge that. But the scope of this was intentionally limited. That’s the message that we’re sending. ”

Speaking from the White House on Saturday night, Trump said: “Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror. Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.

“There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left. Tonight’s was the most difficult of them all by far, and perhaps the most lethal. But if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill.”

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, hailed the strikes. “Congratulations, President Trump, your bold decision to target Iran’s nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history,” he said in a video statement.

Trump said he and Netanyahu had “worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we’ve gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel”.

After Iran’s barrage of missiles, Israeli warplanes began strikes in western Iran, hitting missile launchers and Iranian soldiers, the Israeli military said.

In Iran, the media played down the US strikes, with the state-run IRNA news agency acknowledging early on Sunday an attack on the Fordow nuclear site but saying it had been evacuated beforehand. The semi-official Fars news agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guard Corps, quoted another official saying air defences opened fire near Isfahan and explosions had been heard.

Later, Iran’s atomic agency said the country would carry on with its nuclear activities despite the US attacks on key facilities. Mohammad Manan Raisi, a member of the Iranian parliament representing the city of Qom, where Fordow is located, said the damage to the nuclear facility was not major and “only on the ground, which can be restored”.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said there had been “no increase in off-site radiation levels” after the attacks on the three nuclear sites.

Israel has been launching strikes on Iran for two weeks. It has sought to systematically eradicate the country’s air defences and offensive missile capabilities and damage its nuclear enrichment facilities.

US and Israeli officials said 13,500kg (30,000lb) bunker buster bombs that US stealth bombers alone can carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear programme buried deep underground at Fordow.

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Iranian foreign minister to travel to Moscow for meeting with Putin

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he will travel to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The meeting is planned for Monday, Araghchi told journalists in Istanbul on Sunday. He said he plans to travel to Russia already on Sunday.

The United States intervened in the war against Iran alongside Israel during the night and, according to US President Donald Trump, successfully attacked nuclear facilities. Among them was the well-fortified underground uranium enrichment facility Fordow.

Russia recently warned of a genuine nuclear threat due to Israel's attacks on nuclear energy facilities in Iran. Until now, it was considered unlikely that Russia would support Iran with troops.

Although Moscow and Tehran officially concluded a widely noted strategic partnership this year, it does not include a clause for military assistance – unlike an agreement between Russia and North Korea.

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US urges China to dissuade Iran from closing Strait of Hormuz

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday called on China to encourage Iran to not shut down the Strait of Hormuz after Washington carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

Rubio's comments on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo" show came after Iran's Press TV reported that the Iranian parliament approved a measure to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20% of global oil and gas flows.

"I encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call them about that, because they heavily depend on the Straits of Hormuz for their oil," said Rubio, who also serves as national security adviser.

"If they do that, it will be another terrible mistake. It's economic suicide for them if they do it. And we retain options to deal with that, but other countries should be looking at that as well. It would hurt other countries' economies a lot worse than ours."

Rubio said a move to close the strait would be a massive escalation that would merit a response from the U.S. and others.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately provide comment.

U.S. officials said it "obliterated" Iran's main nuclear sites using 14 bunker-buster bombs, more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles and over 125 military aircraft. The strikes mark an escalation in the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict.

Tehran has vowed to defend itself. Rubio on Sunday warned against retaliation, saying such an action would be "the worst mistake they've ever made."

He added that the U.S. is prepared to talk with Iran.

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Strait of Hormuz saber-rattling ramps up following US attack. Whether the key waterway will close is less clear.

Iran's parliament pushed the nation to close the Strait of Hormuz, according to state media, but left the final decision to choke off the key waterway to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

Vice President JD Vance shot back Sunday that such an action "would be suicidal" for Iran as "their entire economy runs through the Strait of Hormuz."

Yet the Islamic Republic appears to be a step closer to the unprecedented action that could spike prices around the world, with about 20% of global oil and gas flowing through the narrow passageway connecting the Persian Gulf to the rest of the globe.

It was just one front — but perhaps one with the greatest economic consequences — after President Trump ordered an attack on three of Iran's nuclear sites and drew the US into the ongoing war.

Some experts are skeptical Iran will ever follow through, as the country has threatened the strait multiple times over the years — but historically opted for less disruptive measures.

In comments Saturday night, Trump described the move as a means to bring Iran to the negotiating table. But it immediately set off fears of additional violence and retaliation in the days ahead.

For their part, Iranian leaders say any talks are on hold but haven't outlined exactly how they are going to respond.

"The US is not diplomatic and only understands the language of force and threats," said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, according to Mehr News, the country's semi-official news agency.

Araqchi also reportedly avoided directly commenting on the strait, saying "a variety of options are available to Iran."

The action also comes after Iranian General Mohsen Rezaei, an Iranian leader who has a seat on the decision making Supreme National Security Council, reportedly said on state television hours before the attack that the country would move to close the strait if Trump entered the war.

Watching for a ‘worst-case scenario’

Economists will be closely watching the strait because of global economic repercussions that would almost surely follow any disruptions there.

Analysts at JPMorgan Chase (JPM) have called a blockage there a "worst-case scenario" and suggested the result could be global oil prices reaching $120 a barrel and pushing inflation in the US to 5%.

But as Bloomberg energy columnist Javier Blas re-emphasized over the weekend, it benefits Iran to "use low-ranking officials to talk about closing Hormuz," because it sows instability. But it would actually damage Iran to follow through.

Indeed, closing the strait would be felt in Iran's own oil sector and cut off a key revenue source for the country's leaders.

Iran uses the waterway for its own energy exports, which totaled over 1.3 million barrels of oil a day 2023 according to CEIC.

As Noam Raydan, who studies energy and maritime risks at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, "If its oil production and terminals are badly damaged, we can then seriously consider the possibility of Tehran shutting the strait."

So far, that doesn't appear to be the case, with Israel striking one oil refinery in Tehran but so far apparently leaving the country's oil infrastructure largely in place.

Most Iranian oil flows to China but the closing the Strait of Hormuz would jeopardize a wider array of oil and natural gas sources with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and others using that waterway.

The overall landscape has led Trump administration to express tempered confidence Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz option is one that won't be taken.

"That would be suicidal," Vance said Sunday on NBC of Iran taking that step.

"If they want to destroy their own economy and cause disruptions in the world, I think that would be their decision," he acknowledged "but why would they do that? I don't think it makes any sense."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio added on Fox News that Iran closing the strait would be "another terrible mistake...and we retain options to deal with that."