Trump warns Iran after US bombs nuclear sites: Retaliation will be met with 'greater force'

US President Donald Trump on Saturday (Jun 21) warned Iran not to respond after US strikes targeted its main nuclear enrichment facilities in attacks he called a "spectacular military success." "Any retaliation by Iran against the United States of America will be met with force far greater than what was witnessed tonight," Trump posted on social media after making a late-night address to the nation from the White House – a warning he also made in his address to the nation.

A 'spectacular success'

"A short time ago the US military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan," he detailed, adding that everyone heard those names for years as Iran built what Trump referred to as a "horribly destructive enterprise."

Calling the strikes a 'spectacular military success, ' Trump said that “Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”

Labelling Tehran the world's number one state sponsor of terror, Trump said that the US's objective with these strikes was the "destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat" posed by the nation.

Watch | Trump condemns Iran as regional bully after attack on Iran's nuclear sites

Trump, who is fond of coming up with nicknames, then called Iran "the bully of the Middle East" and said that the nation "must now make peace." He added that if Tehran does not fall into line, "future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier."

"For 40 years, Iran has been saying, 'Death to America, Death to Israel...They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs, with roadside bombs."

The US president then said that "That was their speciality, we lost over 1,000 people," however, he did not specify when and where the deaths happened.

Trump also mentioned Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, a shadowy figure who was slain in a 2020 US drone strike. "And hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate, in particular, so many were killed by their general Qasem Soleimani".

While just a day earlier, on Friday (Jun 21) Trump had given Iran a "maximum" two-week warning, in his address to the nation the POTUS said that he had "decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen. It will not continue."

He also congratulated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 'Bibi' Netanyahu and said, "We 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."

He then proceeded to thank the Israeli military before praising the "great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades."

He ended his brief speech with an ominous warning for Iran, saying, "this cannot continue. 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. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes," he said.