Trump held phone call with Netanyahu after US strikes Iran nuke sites; Israel shuts its airspace

Tel Aviv [Israel], June 22 (ANI): US President Donald Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after the American strike on Iranian nuclear facilities concluded, Israeli state media reported on Sunday. Further, Israel has closed its airspace in an apparent precautionary measure following the strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

According to the TPS news agency of Israel, a White House official stated that Trump spoke with Netanyahu shortly after the American strike on Iranian nuclear facilities concluded.

Meanwhile, an ABC report said that the attack against Iran was practised about a year ago by both the US and Israel. The news outlet said that it was the first exercise that war-gamed an offensive strike against Iran's nuclear program.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said he kept his promise from the beginning of Israel's conflict against Iran that Iran's nuclear facilities would be destroyed.

In a Hebrew video statement following the US strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, Netanyahu said the American operation was conducted in "full coordination" with the IDF.

Netanyahu said the US finished the job against Iran's nuclear sites that the IDF started on June 13.

"At the beginning of the operation, I promised you that Iran's nuclear facilities would be destroyed, one way or another. This promise was kept," Netanyahu said, according to the Times of Israel.

CNN reported that Netanyahu held a five-hour meeting with his top officials that lasted throughout the US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. The US broadcaster, citing a source familiar with the meeting, stated that the security cabinet meeting began at 10 p.m. local time and continued until the US carried out its strikes at approximately 3 a.m. local time.

The source said the discussion ended after the US strikes, adding that Israel's Defence Minister, Israel Katz, its Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa'ar, the military chief of staff, and the head of its Mossad spy agency were also present.

Trump described US military strikes on three nuclear sites of Iran as a "spectacular military success" and added that the facilities were "completely and totally obliterated" in an address from the White House on Saturday evening (local time). Trump warned Iran that the US could go after additional targets if Iran does not make peace.

Trump said the objective of Saturday's strikes against the Iranian nuclear sites was to stop the "nuclear threat."

"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," Trump said in an address from the White House Saturday night (local time).

Trump said that US carried out a "very successful attack" on three Iranian nuclear sites -- Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan o. He made the surprise announcement just two days after saying he had opened a two-week window for diplomacy.

Meanwhile, Tehran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had previously warned that any American military intervention in its conflict with Israel "will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage." (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)