Fears of conflict loom large after the United States inserted itself into the Israel-Iran war, raising urgent questions about the possibility of war.
Explosions boomed Monday night in Qatar, home to a major U.S. air base, shortly after its airspace was closed due to Iranian threats of retaliation after American forces pounded its nuclear sites.
Live updates hereExperts warned that worldwide efforts to contain the spread of nuclear weapons by peaceful means would be at stake in the days ahead, while fears of a wider regional conflict heightened. The price of oil rose as financial markets reacted.
With the attack, the United States inserted itself into a war it spent decades trying to avoid. Success could mean ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions and eliminating the last significant state threat to the security of Israel, its close ally. Failure — or overreach — could plunge the U.S. into another long and unpredictable conflict.
So is the U.S. at war with Iran and what exactly is happened?
Here’s the latest:
When did the U.S. bomb Iran and why?
President Donald Trump announced the weekend “massive precision strikes” on Iran’s Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites in a televised address to the nation from the White House. Describing them as “a spectacular military success,” he said they had “completely and fully obliterated” the nuclear sites. Iran, he said, would now have to make peace.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, said during a news briefing in Washington Sunday that while “final battle damage will take some time,” initial assessments indicated all three nuclear sites had been heavily damaged.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strikes were not aimed at toppling the Iranian government.
“This mission was not and has not been about regime change,” Hegseth said during the news briefing.
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization confirmed the attacks, but insisted its nuclear program will not be stopped. Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said there were no immediate signs of radioactive contamination at the three locations following the strikes.
The nuclear fuel enrichment site at Fordo is buried deep beneath a mountain, and the attack against it used bunker-buster bombs designed to penetrate the ground before exploding, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. Only the United States has the 30,000-pound munition and the stealth bombers used to deliver them.
Trump warned there would be additional strikes if Tehran retaliated against U.S. forces, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump’s decision to attack.
Iran’s response
Iran launched a barrage of missiles against Israel overnight and into Sunday morning, with Israeli authorities reporting that more than 80 people were wounded, the vast majority of them lightly.
Why?
The U.S. strikes came after a week of open conflict between Israel and Iran, sparked by Israel’s sudden barrage of attacks against Iran’s nuclear and military structure.
Israeli strikes began on June 13. Targeting Iranian military and nuclear sites, they killed several top military officials and nuclear scientists. Iran retaliated by firing hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel, some of which penetrated the country’s vaunted multi-tiered air defense system. The war so far has killed hundreds of people and wounded more than 1,000 in Iran and killed two dozen and wounded hundreds in Israel.
Iran insists its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. But Israel views it as an existential threat and has said its military campaign is necessary to prevent Iran from building an atomic weapon.
Although U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb, Trump and Israeli leaders have argued it could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon, making it an imminent threat.
The region has been on edge for the past two years as Israel seeks to annihilate the Hamas terrorist group, an Iranian ally, in the Gaza Strip, where war still rages after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.
The decision to attack was a risky one for Trump, who won the White House partly on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts.
But Trump also vowed that he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. He initially hoped that the threat of force would bring the country’s leaders to give up its nuclear program.
For Netanyahu, the strikes were the culmination of a decades-long campaign to get the U.S. to strike Israel’s chief regional rival and its disputed nuclear program. Netanyahu praised Trump, saying his decision “will change history.”
Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons, which it has never acknowledged.
What happened in Qatar?
Iranian state television network IRIB reports that “Operation Besharat al-Fath” has been launched against the U.S. Al Udeid base in Qatar.
The White House and the Department of Defense said they were aware of — and closely monitoring — potential threats to Al Udeid air base in Qatar, according to a senior White House official.
The official said Trump, Defense Secretary Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and other officials are in the White House Situation Room monitoring the latest.
Qatar confirmed that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps attacked the Al-Udeid Air Base, where there is a U.S. military presence.
Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari, Qatar’s foreign affairs spokesperson, said on X that there were no casualties as a result of the attack. He went on to say that Qatar has the right to respond “directly in a manner proportional to the nature and scale of this blatant aggression and in accordance with international law.”
“We also affirm that the continuation of such escalating military actions will undermine security and stability in the region and drag it into situations that will have disastrous repercussions for international peace and security,” he wrote.
Witnesses said they saw what appeared to be missiles in the skies over the country.
Iran did not immediately acknowledge an attack. However, its President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on the social platform X just before the explosions: “We neither initiated the war nor seeking it. But we will not leave invasion to the great Iran without answer.”
The U.S. base in Qatar, Al Udeid Air Base, has 10,000 military personnel.
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The U.S. Embassy in Qatar issued an unexplained alert on its website earlier that afternoon telling Americans in the energy-rich nation to “shelter in place until further notice.” The British Embassy issued a similar warning hours later, without elaborating.
Initially, Qatar downplayed the warning. But Monday night, it issued the extraordinary order to shut its busy airspace.
In the past, Iran has threatened American forces at Al Udeid Air Base, which hosts the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command. Qatar, across the Persian Gulf from Iran, maintains diplomatic relations with Iran and shares a massive offshore natural gas field with Tehran.
Qatar, home to the Al Jazeera satellite news network, also hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup and has begun in recent years to mend its relations with other Gulf countries after a diplomatic crisis saw it cut off for years in Trump’s first term.
Is the U.S. at war with Iran?
While it’s not clear how the Qatar developments could impact the developing situation, Trump and other top American officials had previously urged Iran to forgo retaliation and engage in direct talks.
At first, the Trump administration indicated it wanted to restart diplomatic talks with Iran.
“Let’s meet directly,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with CBS.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. “does not seek war” and Vice President JD Vance told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” Sunday morning that the U.S. is not at war with Iran.
“We’re not at war with Iran,” Vance said. “We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program.”
But Trump warned of additional strikes if Tehran retaliates against U.S. forces and mused Sunday about the possibility of “regime change″ in Iran.
“The president was just simply raising a question that I think many people around the world are asking,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday.
She added, “if they refuse to engage in diplomacy moving forward, why shouldn’t the Iranian people rise up against this brutal terrorist regime?”
The Islamic Republic responded to the U.S. bombing by launching a barrage of missiles at Israel, but had not taken action against other U.S. allies or American interests in the Middle East as of Sunday.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected the call for diplomacy, saying the U.S. had crossed “a very big red line” and maintaining his country had the right to defend itself.
Iranian Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi, the chief of joint staff of armed forces, warned the U.S. on Monday that its strikes gave a “free hand” to Iranian armed forces to “act against U.S. interests and its army.”
Mousavi stressed Iran would not hesitate to do so after the U.S. airstrikes, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. He described the American attack as violating Iran’s sovereignty, entering the Israeli war on the country and being tantamount to invading the country.
An Iranian response could mean a wave of attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East, an attempt to close a key bottleneck for global oil supplies or a dash to develop a nuclear weapon.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it would be a mistake for the Iranians to target U.S. bases in the region or the countries that host them.
“If the regime wants peace, we’re ready for peace. If they want to do something else, they’re incredibly vulnerable. They can’t even protect their own airspace,” Rubio said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
The State Department meanwhile has doubled the number of emergency evacuation flights it is providing for American citizens wishing to leave Israel, ordered the departure of nonessential staff from the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon and is stepping up travel warnings around the Middle East amid concerns about possible retaliatory attacks.
What is needed to declare war?
The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the sole power to declare war.
Article 1 of the Constitution states Congress — and no other part of the federal government — has the power to declare war.
In its history, Congress has declared war 11 times, with the first declaration being with Great Britain in 1812 and the last formal declaration being during World War II.
“Since that time it has agreed to resolutions authorizing the use of military force and continues to shape U.S. military policy through appropriations and oversight,” the U.S. Senate stated.
The limits on presidential power to use military force, however, are set out in the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and the United Nations Charter.
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 is a law designed to provide a check on the president’s power to involve the United States in military action without the consent of Congress. It was passed over President Richard Nixon’s veto in the wake of the Vietnam War, which Congress never actually declared as a war, though it did authorize force in the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
According to the War Powers Resolution, “in any case in which United States Armed Forces are introduced” when war hasn’t been declared, the president has 48 hours to notify, in writing, the speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore. The act requires that the notification include why the president took the action, the authority under which it was taken and “the estimated scope and duration of the hostilities or involvement.” And the resolution also says any time a president uses the armed forces without notifying Congress beforehand, that use must be terminated within 60 days.
Trump’s decision to order strikes in Iran is not the first time a U.S. president has taken military action without seeking congressional approval.
“Presidents over the last 25 years have certainly been stretching the envelope of presidential authority to use force,” John Bellinger, adjunct senior fellow for international and national security law at the Council on Foreign Relations, told NBC News. “Using force more and more, deploying the military more and more, without congressional authority — and Congress, with a few persistent objectors, has simply acquiesced in that.”
Are there threats to Americans?
The Department of Homeland Security on Sunday issued a new National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin warning of a “heightened threat environment” following the U.S. strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran.
“Low-level cyber attacks against US networks by pro-Iranian hacktivists are likely, and cyber actors affiliated with the Iranian government may conduct attacks against US networks,” the bulletin said.
It went on to say that the strikes could motivate violent extremist groups led by the Islamic Republic of Iran to “mobilize,” and seek to attack targets perceived to be Jewish, pro-Israel, or linked to the US government. Those groups include Iranian-backed Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the department said.
“Multiple recent Homeland terrorist attacks have been motivated by anti-Semitic or anti-Israel sentiment, and the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict could contribute to US-based individuals plotting additional attacks,” the warning said.
In a social media post Sunday, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he was communicating with local and federal authorities about how any potential threats could affect Illinois.
Pritzker also said there were no known threats to Illinois.
“I’ll continue to receive briefings as we remain vigilant to ensure the safety of Illinoisans,” he said.
What has the response been globally?
Several close U.S. allies urged a return to the negotiating table following American strikes on Iran that fueled fears of a wider conflict, while noting the threat posed by Tehran’s nuclear program. Some countries and groups in the region, including those that support Iran, condemned the move while also urging de-escalation.
Pope Leo XIV made a strong appeal for peace during his Sunday Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s square, calling for international diplomacy to “silence the weapons.”
After an open reference to the “alarming” situation in Iran, the first American pontiff stressed that “today more than ever, humanity cries out and invokes peace and it is a cry that demands reason and must not be stifled.”
Pope Leo urged every member of the international community to take up their moral responsibility to “stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss.”
How is a Missouri Air Force base involved?
The B-2 stealth bombers that dropped the massive bunker-buster bombs began returning to their U.S. base in Missouri on Sunday.
Seven of the B-2 Spirit bombers came in for landing at Whiteman Air Force Base, located about 73 miles southeast of Kansas City. The base is home to the 509th Bomb Wing, the only U.S. military unit that operates the B-2 Spirit bombers.
According to U.S. officials, one group of the stealth aircraft headed west from the base in the U.S. heartland on Saturday, intended as a decoy to throw off the Iranians.
Another flight of seven quietly flew off eastward, ultimately engaging in the Iran mission. Aided by an armada of refueling tankers and fighter jets — some of which launched their own weapons — U.S. pilots dropped 14 30,000-pound bombs early Sunday local time on two key underground uranium enrichment plants in Iran.
American sailors bolstered the surprise mission by firing dozens of cruise missiles from a submarine toward at least one other site.
What else to know
The war between Israel and Iran has raised concerns that Iran could retaliate by trying to close the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil chokepoint due to the large volumes of crude that pass through it every day.
The Strait of Hormuz is between Oman and Iran, which boasts a fleet of fast-attack boats and thousands of naval mines as well as missiles that it could use to make the strait impassable, at least for a time.
Iran’s main naval base at Bandar Abbas is on the north coast of the strait. It could also fire missiles from its long Persian Gulf shore, as its allies, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, have done in the Red Sea.
About 20 million barrels of oil per day, or around 20% of the world’s oil consumption, passed through the strait in 2024. Most of that oil goes to Asia.
If Iran blocked the strait, oil prices could shoot as high as $120-$130 per barrel, at least temporarily, said Homayoun Falakshahi, head of crude oil analyst at Kpler, in an online webinar Sunday.
That would deal an inflationary shock to the global economy — if it lasted. Analysts think it wouldn’t.
U.S. oil customers would feel the impact of the higher prices but would not lose much supply. The U.S. imported only about 7% of its oil from Persian Gulf countries through the strait in 2024, according to the USEIA. That was the lowest level in nearly 40 years.
Any price spike would probably not last. One big reason: Analysts expect that the U.S. Navy would intervene to keep the strait open. In the 1980s, U.S. warships escorted Kuwaiti oil tankers through the strait to protect them against Iranian attacks during the Iran-Iraq war.
A price spike “wouldn’t last very long” and the strait would likely be reopened “very fast,” said Kpler’s Falakshahi.
U.S. use of force to reopen the strait would likely be supported by Europe and “even unofficially by China,” he said. “Iran’s navy would probably get destroyed in a matter of hours or days.”
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