Israel’s military conducted airstrikes on Iran, targeting its nuclear facilities and research scientists early Friday morning local time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
In a video statement, Netanyahu described the strikes — dubbed “Operation Rising Lion” — as “a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival.”
Netanyahu said the strikes “will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.”
The United States was not part of the operation and was not involved in intelligence sharing, multiple U.S. sources told CBS News, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed this in a statement.
“Israel took unilateral action against Iran,” he said. “We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense.”
Rubio added, “Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”
An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said the military “launched a preemptive, precise, combined offensive based on high-quality intelligence to strike Iran’s nuclear program, and in response to the Iranian regime’s ongoing aggression against Israel.”
The spokesperson said “dozens” of Israeli air force jets struck “dozens of military targets, including nuclear targets in different areas of Iran.” The statement referred to it as “the first stage.”
Iranian state media outlet Press TV reported loud explosions throughout the capital city of Tehran early Friday. State television said there have been some casualties.
CBS News reported Wednesday that Israel was ready to launch an operation on Iran. The U.S. anticipated Iranian retaliation on American sites in Iraq — leading the Trump administration to advise non-emergency U.S. government officials and military families to leave the entire region.
When asked about those precautionary measures for U.S. nationals in the Mideast, President Trump said only that the region “could be a dangerous place, and we’ll see what happens.”
If the U.S remains uninvolved in the strikes, it means Israel’s operation will not include B-2 bombers, which carry heavy bombs that can penetrate Iran’s deep underground fortified uranium enrichment facilities. As a result, a lack of U.S. participation could limit Iran’s ability to fully eliminate Iran’s nuclear program.
The White House will convene a Cabinet meeting regarding the conflict Friday morning, according to several sources.
The strikes came as the Trump administration has been seeking to negotiate an agreement with Iran’s government to limit the country’s nuclear program. Mr. Trump has said Iran cannot be allowed to enrich uranium, but Iran is unwilling to accept those terms.
Steve Witkoff, the president’s Mideast envoy, was planning to hold a sixth round of talks in Oman over the weekend, but it’s not yet clear whether those meetings will take place.
Israel has long been skeptical of striking a deal with Iran, its top global foe, and has acknowledged carrying out various covert and overt actions over the years to set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Iran’s nuclear program has existed for decades, though the country denies that it has any interest in building a nuclear weapon. International watchdogs say Iran has increased its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium in recent years, after Mr. Trump withdrew from a 2015 Obama-era nuclear agreement that he viewed as weak.
In a statement announcing the strikes, the IDF said Iran “is closer than ever to obtaining a nuclear weapon” and “has proclaimed that its objective is to destroy the State of Israel.” Israel also cited Iran’s support for militant groups in the region, including the terrorist group Hamas, and Iran’s ballistic missile attacks on Israel last year.
Michal Ben-Gal and Seyed Bathaei contributed to this report.
