Iran puts Trump ‘the gambler’ on notice as US warns against choking crucial oil shipping route

Washington: Iran has moved towards blocking the vital Strait of Hormuz oil and gas route and warned that the United States’ bombing of its nuclear facilities gave it a “free hand” to retaliate, as America urged Tehran to return to the negotiating table.

“Mr Trump, the gambler, you may start this war, but we will be the ones to end it,” Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya central military headquarters, said on Monday.

US President Donald Trump with (from left) Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.Credit: AP

Iran’s state-owned Press TV reported the parliament had agreed to close the narrow strait, through which about 20 per cent of the world’s oil supply flows – though the final decision rests with the country’s Supreme National Security Council.

Attempting to strangle the strait could send global oil prices skyrocketing, derail the world economy and invite conflict with the US Navy’s massive Fifth Fleet based in nearby Bahrain.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said if Iran followed through on the threat, it would be “another terrible mistake” – and one that would aggravate China, which relies heavily on the key channel that separates the Persian Gulf from the Arabian Sea and the wider world.

“It’s economic suicide for them, if they do it, and we retain options to deal with that,” Rubio told Fox News on Sunday morning (Washington time).

In a series of media appearances following the US attack on Sunday (AEST) against three Iranian nuclear facilities, Rubio and Vice President JD Vance said the US was not at war with Iran and was not pursuing regime change.

But Trump, who last week reportedly opposed an Israeli plan to seize a “window of opportunity” by assassinating the country’s Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, later suggested regime change could be on the cards.

“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!!!” he said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

Vance said it was time for Iranian leaders to “give peace a chance”, arguing the strike gave Iran the opportunity to “reset” its relationship with the US and restart negotiations, which, over recent months, had failed to put an end to the country’s nuclear ambitions.

“The Iranians have a choice,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press. “They can go down the path of peace, or they can go down the path of this ridiculous brinksmanship of funding terrorism, of trying to build a nuclear weapon – and that’s just not something the United States can accept.”

As the world braced for a response from Iran’s weakened military, the US State Department issued a worldwide caution for American citizens, flagging the potential for travel disruptions and demonstrations against the US.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who reportedly flew to Moscow to seek support from ally Russia, said there would be no return to diplomacy until Tehran had retaliated.

“The US showed they have no respect for international law. They only understand the language of threat and force,” he said.

General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provides more detail about the US attack on Iran.Credit: AP

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has signalled that US military bases in the region, which house tens of thousands of troops, could be targeted, although experts say Israel’s strikes since June 13 have severely damaged Iran’s ability to mount attacks.

Security experts said Iran could turn to strikes against US embassies and consulates or energy infrastructure in the region, or cyber or terrorist attacks within the US.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon unveiled details of what it called a focused and powerful strike – codenamed Operation Midnight Hammer – against Iran’s nuclear facilities, involving 14 never-before-used “bunker-buster” bombs among a total of 75 precision-guided weapons.

General Dan Caine, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said seven B-2 bombers, each with two crew, flew 18 hours from the continental United States to Iran, communicating minimally and refuelling multiple times during flight.

Over land, they linked up with escort and support aircraft, and dropped 14 GBU-57 bombs – called a Massive Ordnance Penetrator – on the Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites.

A US submarine also fired more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles at the Isfahan nuclear technology centre, which includes uranium enrichment facilities.

All three targets were struck between 6.40pm and 7.05pm on Saturday, Washington time, Caine said, or 2.10am to 2.35am Tehran time. The US was not aware of any shots fired at its planes on the way in or out of Iranian airspace.

Several of the B-2 bombers were seen returning to the Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri early on Monday (AEST).

A B-2 bomber arrives at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri after returning from the Iranian nuclear site strike.Credit: AP

“Throughout the mission, we retained the element of surprise,” Caine said. “Iran’s fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran’s surface-to-air missile systems did not see us.”

The mission also involved deception tactics, including decoy flights west from the US over the Pacific Ocean.

However, it was not immediately clear how much damage the Iranian targets sustained. The ​​International Atomic Energy Agency ​– the UN’s nuclear watchdog ​– confirmed​ that entrances to tunnels used to store part of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile at the Isfahan complex were ​damaged.

“Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The biggest damage took place far below ground level. Bullseye!!!”

Caine also said the country’s nuclear weapons infrastructure had been severely degraded. However, he noted damage assessment was still under way, “and it would be way too early for me to comment on what may or may not still be there”.

The Fordow facility was struck again on Monday night (AEST), Iranian state television reported. Israel’s Defence Ministry said it was striking Iranian government targets in Tehran, including the notorious Evin Prison in the Iranian capital.

US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said the US military operation, which he called bold and brilliant, showed the world that “American deterrence is back”.

“Many presidents have dreamed of delivering the final blow to Iran’s nuclear program, and none could until President Trump,” he said.

In remarks he directed at Iran’s leaders, Vance said that with Iran’s nuclear program destroyed, and its proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah severely degraded, it was evident “the Iranians clearly are not very good at war”.

“Perhaps they should follow President Trump’s lead and give peace a chance,” he said.

But speaking to an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Monday AEST, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Amir-Saeid Iravani, said the US had “decided to destroy diplomacy” with its strikes.

He said the Iranian military would now decide the “timing, nature and scale of Iran’s proportionate response”, and: “We will take all measures necessary.”

General Abdolrahim Mousavi, the new chief of staff of the armed forces, warned that the strikes gave a “free hand” to Iran’s military to “act against US interests and its army”, while Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said any country used by the US to strike Iran would be “a legitimate target”.

Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon praised the US for taking action against Iran, and accused Iran of using negotiations over its nuclear program as camouflage to buy time to build missiles and enrich uranium.

“The cost of inaction would have been catastrophic. A nuclear Iran would have been a death sentence just as much for you as it would have been for us,” he told the council.

China “strongly” condemned the attacks on Iran, saying the US action “seriously violates the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and international law and exacerbates tensions in the Middle East”.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin has condemned the Israeli strikes. He told Iran’s Araghchi on Monday that there was no justification for the US bombing of his country and that Moscow was trying to help the Iranian people.

With Reuters, AP

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