three? the two known sites for uranium enrichment up natanz and fordo and they were struck. i stress the word known because it was once a covert secret side so one wonders that there will not be an intelligence game of cat and mouse. one point wide weeks ago, a resolution was passed in vienna against iran's nuclear programme, the iranians responded by saying they would be opening a third new enrichment plant that was allegedly deeper. they've been constructing it since 2022, reportedly deeper than fordo. and the site location remains

unknown. other any civilian populations on these sites? the right nuclear facilities and complexes which the chinese help with many years ago on the periphery of the city. fordo is now the holy city of qom and natanz is south of a population centre but has a population centre within it. there were questions about environmental and human security impacts. there is still concern over potential radiological and chemical effects. striking this facility, two of which are underground, are nowhere near

as dangerous/ steel dangerous steel pathogens release but nowhere near as dangerous as striking an active reactor. we go to an american physicist, david albright, a former weapons inspector. thank you for hanging on. want to get your reaction to what we have heard from the white house. it is certainly surprising in happen tonight although i might say, there has been chat up all day that this could be the night but it is surprising that it has taken place. we do not know exactly what was it beyond fordo and i would emphasise, if you bring in the heavy hitters like the united states, you publish not be looking at the natanz, 25 feet underground, we think israel hit it with some massive ordnance penetrator.

nearby is a mountain complex and that is even more deeply buried and beyond the capability of israel to take out and not too long ago, iran announced it had built a new enrichment plan, heavily fortified, did not say where it was but it said it was getting ready to place centrifuges so i would be questioning whether it was this under picus mountain. that would be a very significant accomplishment and setback end if it nuclear programme. isfahan, probably what i would be looking for, if they hit the tunnels, iran back in 2007, built a series of

tunnel complexes or tunnel entrances and we do not know what is inside next to the isfahan site and they declared to the iaa as part of the isfahan nuclear complex and israel as of today have not bombed those tunnels. it did a bomb run on the six or seven buildings at the main isfahan site but they did not touch the tunnels and so the us hit the tunnel complex and put them out of operation and that has been a lot of buzz that those tunnels store a lot of enriched uranium and the purpose was in an emergency, one of the vital assets for protection and that would have made it a legitimate and reasonable target for the

us. i wonder if i have time to ask you another question. what would be the nuclear risks around targeting site like this? you explained some of them are underground but what might be some of the possible risks around this? i do not think there is much risk at all. if there was nuclear material, they very well could be, then you have to protect yourself, maybe where a ventilator and worry about the chemically reactive material. you do not want to rethink the uranium but a simple mask would help. also think about it, if there is nuclear material in fordo, it is under 80 metres of

rock. the us may have created an unregulated geological repository for that uranium and so it is very unlikely to come out. and the compound tend not to move too easily. so i think is the outside population does not need to worry. that would have been thought through. i know everyone is worried about this. but these issues have been thought through very by military planners with an eye to try to make sure you do not have radiation escaping from these facilities. you studied iran's nuclear programme for a long time. the next question we touched on a little bit, is this likely to have dramatically reduced its capability for enrichment? all three are serious and if they

were hit, obviously fordo has 700 centrifuges and it may have some enriched uranium. fordo has 15,000 or more so you are really taking out the bulk of their centrifuge programme. you have to still worry about centrifuges manufactured and not deployed so that you will have to be a hunt and destroy mission by israel and they are trying to recruit people. they have sent out notices all through iran, if you want to participate, contact this e-mail and in the end make sure he use an external vpn. if you want a new life. we saw in the iraq war, where sadhana was kicked out of kuwait and there

were secret people coming out and going to places like taking contacting the us and ended up revealing the enrichment programme. it was completely unknown to britain, the us and so these insiders in these kind of situations and provide information that is critical about hidden assets. -- saddam hussein. great to have you on. given that you are an expert on the run nuclear programme and former inspector. thank you very much. we -- you are joining a rolling programme. in the last hour or so, president trump confirmed american involvement in an attack on

iran. in a post on truth social, the president said that us had completed what he described a very successful attack on three nuclear site in iran. i will go through the three. one is fordo, the other acro two an isfahan. in a separate post, president trump said fordo was now gone. fordo is understood to be a nuclear site quite deep underground. the president saying all us planes that were involved in this action are now outside of iranian airspace. he said full payload of bombs was dropped on the primary site. what you can see on the screen are american b-2 bombers. we understand they were the planes involved in this action. it was a couple of hours ago we were reporting that those b-2 bombers from the

us had been moved to an american military base in guam. president trump is due to address the american people in just under 90 minutes from now. he will deliver an address to update the american people and indeed the world on this military action. it is interesting, the timing of this, because it was only a couple of days ago that the president said he would have a think about whether or not to join israel's action on iran. and maybe give it another fortnight or so. so in some ways, some experts we have spoken to say this news of tonight's action came as a bit of a surprise. we know the national security council met at the white house this evening, here in washington. it is about 8:40pm in washington. president trump is due to address the nation at ten p.m.. he has been posting on truth

social saying now is the time for peace. i should say that at this stage, we have not had any response from iran on this, nor any confirmation of what president trump is saying. indeed, confirmation in particular about whether the fordo nuclear site has now gone. we also do not have any reaction from israel, who of course have been attacking iran for just over a week. so at the moment, that is what we know. president trump confirming us involvement in an attack on three nuclear sites in iran, including fordo, natanz and isfahan. let's join ben again who joins me in the studio. we have heard confirmation of

three nuclear sites being targeted and potentially being taken out by the us. how much will this degrade iran's nuclear enrichment capabilities? when it comes to nine enrichment sites to significantly degrade if not destroys the nine facilities as well as some site related to the domestic fuel cycle such as isfahan. but the unknown enrichment site race and intelligence question. warehouses, things that would have been put in place as a plan b type scenario by the islamic republic, given that there had been talking for potentially two decades when the progress became known to the public. is there any scope now for a diplomatic way forward? i ask this because of

course, we have seen iran's foreign minister meet with a range of different people. he met with european foreign ministers on friday and today in istanbul, in turkey, with his counterpart from muslim majority nations. it is there any diplomatic path forward through that channel? it is not clear if it is going to be through that channel but certainly the islamic republic of iran, has every incentive to try to come to a diplomatic solution and hit pause and accept the fact that it basically failed to negotiate away and instead had the enrichment capability taken away. perhaps if the regime wants to respond for face-saving purposes, that would certainly guarantee a wider us involvement. a cycle

which began in 2020, when it by proxy killed us service person in iraq. if they choose to respond and does not seek the offer the president has mentioned, things have the potential of widening. do you stay with us. a reminder that we are continuing our coverage of the news that america has attacked iran. president trump saying it was a successful attack on three nuclear sites in the country. we just seeing reports the israeli public broadcaster stating an israeli official saying israel was in full co-ordination with america on this attack. we know that israel did need the so-called bunker buster bombs which were able to take outside that were deep underground. and so they

have been -- there has been a lot of speculation whether america would support israel and that has come to fruition. the former defence minister of israel saying the world is now a safer place. it is a bold decision for the us, it is a bold decision for israel and for humanity. i am joined now by barbara starr, a broadcaster who is covered the pentagon for many, many years. it is good to have you on bbc news. what is your take on what we are hearing so far? i think right now we're just hearing very sketchy, not very complete if you will information and there is a long wait to go to find out exactly what has happened. first of all, let's take the

president at his word. the us pilot dropped bombs and all us planes are out of iranian airspace safely and that is the best news right now which means all us pilots are safe and that is very good news for everybody. but now the hard work should begin. they need to figure out exactly what they did destroy. let's just talk about fordo. the enrichment plant. that it is gone. they cannot really know that at this point. they need to collect intelligence and a reconnaissance over the side, take some imaging, run satellite over the top, see what they can see and try to determine how much they actually were able to destroy. that is so important because it will help the us and israel come to the calculation of how much damage they really did. in other was, how far they said back iran's nuclear programme.

did they really destroy everything? is it setback for years, months? we do not really know at this and we will have to see how much the public is really told. but this is going to be the key question tonight. how much was really destroyed. and just going to pause you for a second because we do now have our first reaction from iran. the deputy political director of iran's state broadcaster hassan aberdeen has appeared live on television and he says, iran evacuated the three nuclear sites mentioned in the truth social post by president trump. he said even if what president trump was true, iran did not suffer a major blow because the materials had already been taken out.

barbara, i will bring you back in. that is first reaction from iran estate to be contemplated on what you are saying, that these posts need to be taken with some scepticism until they are actually confirmed? scepticism on all sides. we do not know what the iranians are really talking about. if they had moved the material, it would be fair to assume at least that israeli intelligence would have seen that in some fashion because they have been keeping eyes over a run, satellites, reconnaissance flights, personnel covertly underground, they have been keeping eyes on run for some time in the run-up to this and sharing intelligence with the us. what does it take to actually drop a bomb on this fordo target? we know it is deep underground so us intelligence, us military intelligence had to know the

exact formation, if you will of the rock, the geology, the dirt, how deeply buried it was, what was the exact gps precision point that they wanted to strike at the site to do the maximum damage. if the iranians had moved material out it is difficult to see how israel might not have known that. they may well have done that and that would be a problem and they may have been doing things at multiple sites that intelligence services were not fully aware of. this has been going on for some time in iran, where they have dispersed their programme to various sides so, again, it is really a question of what now. it is one thing to drop a bomb and quite another thing to figure out what it all means and where do we go from here. will they have to be additional us drugs? that may be a key question tonight.

barbara starr, thank you very much for sharing your thoughts. can i ask you one more question on this. the likely political reaction here in washington, dc across party lines? well, i think the one fundamental that underlies all of this in washington tonight is that no-one really wants to see another us involved war in the middle east, after years in iraq and afghanistan. both from the democratic and republican side, no-one wants to see that there is no appetite for that. but here is the problem, you break it, you bought it. so if this goes badly in some fashion, if there is irani in retaliation against us interests, that is big concern against us bases, troops in the region, us shipping and assets

or even allied assets. if the iranians were to retaliate in some fashion, it becomes a problem in terms of what does the trump administration do next. easy to get into a combat situation, like they did tonight, very difficult to get out of it because any top commander will tell you, the enemy gets a vote. barbara starr, thank you very much for joining us here on bbc news. let's go live now to israel and speak to my colleague michael owen in tel aviv. what reaction have we had from the israelis? no official reaction yet. it is of course the middle of the night here and israelis will be waking up or will be woken to this use in the same surprising fashion as the rest of us but

of course the israeli government may indeed have been forewarned because this is what they have been wanting, to get the us into this deployment, wanting to use those b-2 bomber planes to drop those bunker busting bombs that they lack and wanting desperately to take fordo and in particular the nuclear outside buried into the mountain, perhaps as low as 90 or 100 metres underground. we do not yet know how many bombs and indeed which bombs were dropped on the three nuclear sites. we assume it would be those 30.5 ton condition which only the americans possess. -- 13.5. the largest nuclear weapons in the american arsenal. there was a discussion for days and actually back into previous us administrations as

to how many of those bombs would be needed to potentially destroy fordo. there was talk even of mock fordo models given to the obama administration years ago, with presentations in the oval office showing what a destruction of that nucleoside could look like, where the americans to drop the bomb and trump has done it, it appears. we will not know exactly more detail on that until it comes from the president's posts or statements. two days after he gave iran this two-week window he has gone in. it changes the dynamic of this war entirely. it makes a completely unpredictable and we do not know what the reaction will be from iran. so we are in very uncharted territory. we are seeing on one of the agencies

that an iranian official cited by a news agency has confirmed that part of the fordo nucleoside was attacked by, i quote, and mes drugs. we heard these attacks were the us acting co-ordination with israel. just tell us more about that from an israeli perspective, given that is where you are? i mean, i'm just trying to see whether there has been any kind of word yet from the israeli government and i'm just going to ask my team to keep an eye on that and to feed me any lines that are coming in. the israelis have been pushing for this for a very long time. you know, they have been stating in the last couple

of days, from various officials, that trump will be on the right side of history and listening and sending the military at the right time. of course, in the us, there is not the same kind of cross-party political fervour for this. in israel, polls showed the majority of israelis want this war and want the destruction of the iranian nuclear site. 77% of israelis were back again. i'm just going to jump in because you probably have not seen this yourself but i am seeing that got underlined has said the world is now a safer place, a bold decision for humanity so starting to get some reaction -- yoav gallant.

yoav gallant kicked out on the government here. but it is the iran war has cross the political lines here. yoav gallant the first of the israeli ex- ministers to react. we have not had anything from the foreign minister or current defence minister. we have some lines coming into a saying there are changes to the home front command, determined that 3:45am local time, literally ten minutes ago, immediate changes will be made to the home front command instruction, basically the advice given to how closely they should be two bunkers and how free they should be to operate. and they say is part of the changes that

it was decided to shift all areas of the country from partial and limited activity essential activity. that is a recognition that what has happened in the last hour greatly increases the risk and the vulnerability to israelis. so the instructions include a prohibition on activities, gatherings in workplaces except for central structures. we are beginning to get a sense of how strikes there might be impacting daily life here. mark lowen thank you for that update. ben, still with me in the studio, we are hearing a little bit more from iran individuals who have been speaking to the iranian broadcasting corporation. nucleoside struck by the us do not contain materials which cause radiation. what is your

thoughts on that? if the iranian officials is sending this message clearly and i think he's trying to internet what the regime has doing, there is not a way to verify that yet, he is saying or bragging that the regime is beaming engaging in diversion, including at high levels at a facility like fordo. on the one side this is a public-relations message, saying thing we used to create a nuclear weapon is not gone. at the moment there is no way to verify that. it will take a minimum of 24 hours for an assessment from the us. if this is true, it means there is loose and accounted for material and the risk is what the regime will dangle to get there counter regime scenario. the security deputy governor of

isfahan has confirmed there were several explosions had in the towns and isfahan. we saw attacks near the nucleoside and so essentially now, all three strike sites mentioned by the president now confirmed by iran in officials. i wonder if you could give me your thoughts on that. this is the regime trying to put meat on the bone but because they come amid a whole host of comments by officials, this is trying to wadded down the impact of these strikes at the same time. managing expectation is what the regime has been doing, they fear the iranian people more than any foreign government and their most important war at the moment is the media war. thank you very much for sharing your thoughts as an iran expert and, of course, we are in tandem,

running a live page on the bbc website with plenty of reaction as we are getting it in. this is bbc news. this is bbc news. we begin with that breaking story coal the us has attacked iran. in the past hour, president trump posted on social media that the us carried out a very successful attack on three iranian nuclear sites, including the underground uranium enrichment facility at fordo. on the post, he said... he said in a post on