Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. A short time ago,
Speaker 1: the US military carried out massive precision strikes on the
Speaker 1: three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime.
Speaker 2: On Saturday night, the United States conducted airstrikes on three
Speaker 2: of Iran's nuclear sites. It was a dramatic escalation of
Speaker 2: the US's involvement in Israel's deepening war with Tehran.
Speaker 1: Our objective was the destruction of irans nuclear enrichment capacity
Speaker 1: and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the
Speaker 1: world's number one state sponsor of terror.
Speaker 2: President Trump addressed the nation at ten pm Eastern and
Speaker 2: called the attacks on Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities quote
Speaker 2: a spectacular military.
Speaker 1: Success rand The bully of the Middle East must now
Speaker 1: make peace. If they do not, future attacks would be
Speaker 1: far greater and a lot easier.
Speaker 2: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegsath said in a press conference
Speaker 2: from the Pentagon that an initial battleground assessment suggested that
Speaker 2: the strikes had quote the desired effect.
Speaker 3: We devastated the Iranian nuclear program, but it's worth noting
Speaker 3: the operation did not target Iranian troops of the Iranian people.
Speaker 2: Within hours of the attack, Israel's prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Speaker 2: put out a recorded statement praising the US strikes. Iran's
Speaker 2: foreign minister said the country would use all options to
Speaker 2: defend itself. Bloomberg's US National security and intelligence reporter Natalia
Speaker 2: Drosdiak says that Trump's monumental decision happened slowly and then
Speaker 2: suddenly all at once.
Speaker 4: He had publicly said that he would give himself two
Speaker 4: weeks to decide, and over the weekend we started seeing
Speaker 4: some signs that maybe something was up sooner than that,
Speaker 4: and it appears that he decided pretty much minutes before
Speaker 4: the bomber plant's actually deployed to Iran. So this was
Speaker 4: a relatively last minute decision, even if it was something
Speaker 4: that he'd been considering for the last few days.
Speaker 2: And now it's raised questions that could take much longer
Speaker 2: to resolve.
Speaker 4: So the fear was that getting involved here, even if
Speaker 4: it was a limited surgical strike, that could escalate and
Speaker 4: spiral out of control in such a way that would
Speaker 4: just drag the US back into another longer fight.
Speaker 2: I'm Sarah Holder, and this is the big take from
Speaker 2: Bloomberg News today. On the show What Comes After the
Speaker 2: US strikes on Iran? Natalia drosdiac covered is national security
Speaker 2: and intelligence for Bloomberg and has been following the US's
Speaker 2: weekend strike on Iran.
Speaker 4: So this whole operation took about thirty seven hours. They
Speaker 4: dubbed it Midnight Hammer. It resulted in strikes on Iran's
Speaker 4: nuclear sites in fordeaux Is, Fahan, and Natan's. In the end,
Speaker 4: they ended up using about one hundred and twenty five planes.
Speaker 4: They even launched Tomahawk missiles from submarines, you know, some
Speaker 4: hundred miles away, if not more, And they ended up
Speaker 4: using about fourteen of those bunker buster bombs, which are
Speaker 4: called massive ordnance penetrator bombs. So by the end of it,
Speaker 4: because there were no US service members who.
Speaker 5: Were lost or harmed.
Speaker 4: And Iran also didn't end up firing at any US assets,
Speaker 4: the administration deemed it a big success.
Speaker 2: Well, the move was surprising for a president who campaigned
Speaker 2: on America First, who promised to end the US's involvement
Speaker 2: in forever Wars. How much of a reversal is this
Speaker 2: from Trump?
Speaker 4: So, I mean, on one hand, he has been saying
Speaker 4: repeatedly for years now that Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon,
Speaker 4: But on the other hand as you say he's been.
Speaker 4: He had campaigned on becoming, you know, the peace president
Speaker 4: and getting America out of wars that were in the
Speaker 4: Middle East and elsewhere in the world. There's also a
Speaker 4: strong faction inside his party that tend to be more restrainers,
Speaker 4: that don't want to get engaged in these forever wars.
Speaker 4: But the question is whether they'll ultimately rally around him,
Speaker 4: and you know, they might be able to come around
Speaker 4: to that narrative, especially if these strikes stay limited and
Speaker 4: don't escalate in a major way.
Speaker 2: The US strikes came nine days after Israel bombed Iran
Speaker 2: on June thirteenth, setting off a series of attacks between
Speaker 2: the two countries. Ethan Bronner is Bloomberg's Israel bureau chief,
Speaker 2: and he's been covering the fallout. I asked him what
Speaker 2: we know so far about the love of coordination between
Speaker 2: Israel and the US and a lead up to the
Speaker 2: US as strikes.
Speaker 5: It was exceptionally tight coordination.
Speaker 3: Trump got a call from Natanya who said we are
Speaker 3: going to move and he didn't stop them.
Speaker 5: He didn't say don't do it, but he said you're
Speaker 5: on your own. But then what.
Speaker 3: Happened is the Israelis, after many years and months of planning,
Speaker 3: actually carried out a rather brilliant set of tactical moves
Speaker 3: in terms of killing a number of top people, in
Speaker 3: terms of damaging Natons and other uranium and Richmond site,
Speaker 3: and in terms of taking out a whole bunch of
Speaker 3: launchers and long range ballistic missiles. So when that happened,
Speaker 3: I think that the Americans looked on and said, well,
Speaker 3: this could be something we could join easily, and the
Speaker 3: Israeli said it to them. They said, hey, we've set
Speaker 3: the table, no boots.
Speaker 5: On the ground.
Speaker 3: All you have to do is bring your amazing hardware,
Speaker 3: your B two's and your bunker busters, draw a few
Speaker 3: bombs and get out.
Speaker 5: That's all we're asking of you. And in essence, that's
Speaker 5: what happened.
Speaker 2: So, I mean, what does the US's entrance into this world,
Speaker 2: the response to that call and that ask say about
Speaker 2: Nyaho's relationship with Trump and his influence over the president.
Speaker 3: So we do know that he has been very influential
Speaker 3: over the years, and in fact, Nichan Yaou did tell
Speaker 3: the Nation Israel a week ago that he ordered the
Speaker 3: beginning the preparation for this attack on Iran in November.
Speaker 5: So it's clear that the election of Trump was one
Speaker 5: of the motives for him to do so.
Speaker 3: President Biden was against this kind of military activity, so
Speaker 3: was President Obama, and so in previous efforts to maybe
Speaker 3: bomb Iran, the Americans pushed back and did not allow
Speaker 3: Israel to do so this time. Interestingly, in the spring,
Speaker 3: it looked like President Trump did say to them hold
Speaker 3: off when they wanted to move forward.
Speaker 5: He wanted to give diplomacy a chance.
Speaker 3: But he also says that diplomacy didn't work, and therefore
Speaker 3: he decided to move in this direction.
Speaker 2: Beyond destroying Iran's nuclear capabilities, Israel has also called for
Speaker 2: regime change in Iran. On Sunday, Defense Secretary Hegsuth said
Speaker 2: that wasn't part of the US's goals, but later, in
Speaker 2: a post on True Social Trump implied that he did
Speaker 2: favor regime change too. As he put it, make Iran
Speaker 2: great again. What do we know about the differences in
Speaker 2: what the US and Israel hope to accomplish here?
Speaker 3: So officially, Israel has not named regime change as one
Speaker 3: of its war aims.
Speaker 5: It has frequently said, we'd be delighted. We think it's
Speaker 5: a great thing.
Speaker 3: Ultimately, that's what has to happen, but that they have
Speaker 3: not called for that. They have set out three war
Speaker 3: aims to destroy Around's nuclear capacity, two to destroy its
Speaker 3: ballistic missile capacity, and three to destroy its ability to
Speaker 3: sponsor militias around Israel that seek its destruction. There has
Speaker 3: been a kind of emission creep in Israel about this,
Speaker 3: and one of the reasons, of course, is that over
Speaker 3: the last nine days since Israel launched its attack on Iran,
Speaker 3: the ballistic missiles that have flown into this country have
Speaker 3: been extremely destructive and very frightening. They have left people homeless,
Speaker 3: they have destroyed whole city blocks, and they have made
Speaker 3: the Israelis feel that simply ending the nuclear program may not.
Speaker 5: End the threat that Iran poses to this country.
Speaker 2: So what do we know about the actual extent of
Speaker 2: the damage to Iran's nuclear facilities and its capabilities.
Speaker 5: So far, we don't know much, Sarah. We are waiting,
Speaker 5: and the even the.
Speaker 3: Israeli officials that I've spoken to, so they're waiting for
Speaker 3: deeper data and knowledge and information of what happened.
Speaker 5: The goal of the US operation.
Speaker 3: Was to drop such heavy, heavy bombs on fourdoh that
Speaker 3: it would not be able to be reconstituted.
Speaker 5: We don't know if that happened.
Speaker 3: We do know that if fourteen thirty thousand pound bombs
Speaker 3: were dropped.
Speaker 5: As apparently as the case on.
Speaker 3: A spot, even if it's eighty meters or one hundred
Speaker 3: meters underground, it feels like a reasonable assumption that bad
Speaker 3: things would happen to that place.
Speaker 2: As of Sunday evening, the extent of the damage to
Speaker 2: Iran's nuclear facilities was still being assessed. So I asked
Speaker 2: Bloomberg's Natalia Drosiak what the Trump administration was preparing for next.
Speaker 4: So at this point, it's pretty clear that Iran is
Speaker 4: going to have to retaliate against the US. You know,
Speaker 4: this has been the Supreme Leader's main project for decades,
Speaker 4: this nuclear project. So the strikes that we've seen over
Speaker 4: the last few days are not going to go over lately.
Speaker 4: And there's a variety of ways that they may choose
Speaker 4: to retaliate. It could be attacking US forces in the
Speaker 4: Middle East or American citizens. It could involve getting proxy
Speaker 4: groups involved launching terror attacks around the world. There's any
Speaker 4: number of ways that they may choose to retaliate, and
Speaker 4: in terms of how the US will respond, they've made
Speaker 4: clear that if Iran responds or retaliates in any way,
Speaker 4: the US will hit back even harder. And in the meantime,
Speaker 4: the White House is also, you know, continuing to push
Speaker 4: for diplomacy. They're hoping that, you know, with Iran's program
Speaker 4: now so decimated, as they say, as they claim anyway,
Speaker 4: they're hoping that they'll feel compelled to finally come to
Speaker 4: the table in a serious way and reach a deal.
Speaker 2: Well, the US and Iran, we're engaging in negotiations and
Speaker 2: talks before this attack. What could diplomacy look like moving forward?
Speaker 4: It's really difficult to say, because I think at this
Speaker 4: stage there's probably a lot of trust that's been broken.
Speaker 4: So will the Iranians believe the Americans? I think that's
Speaker 4: one of the key questions. Another one is how do
Speaker 4: you actually monitor the Iranian nuclear program if they're allowed
Speaker 4: to have any any sort of enrichment, even if it's
Speaker 4: just for civilian purposes. You know, that was one of
Speaker 4: the benefits, let's say, or what proponents were advocating for
Speaker 4: as part of the past nuclear program, and now with
Speaker 4: these sites destroyed, that monitoring is going to be very difficult.
Speaker 2: Is there a scenario where this weekend's attacks are the
Speaker 2: end of US involvement in this conflict? Like, could this
Speaker 2: go back to being Israel's war tomorrow next week?
Speaker 4: I think this is the key question. I think what
Speaker 4: we'll decide that is how Iran retaliates. If they retaliate
Speaker 4: in a way that's unsuccessful in terms of targeting American
Speaker 4: forces or American citizens, then there might be a way
Speaker 4: to keep this from spiraling.
Speaker 2: This is the Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder.
Speaker 2: For more reporting on the Israel Iran war from on
Speaker 2: the ground in the Middle East and from the White House,
Speaker 2: go to Bloomberg dot Com and tomorrow on the Big Take,
Speaker 2: we'll bring you an episode diving into what this latest
Speaker 2: escalation could mean for oil markets and access to Iron
Speaker 2: Strait of Hormuz. To get more from The Big Take
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Speaker 2: today at Bloomberg dot com Slash Podcast offer. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: We'll be back tomorrow.