WASHINGTON — The Trump administration sent conflicting messages Sunday — with U.S. officials indicating a willingness to resume negotiations with Iran after a surprise attack on three of the country’s nuclear sites and President Donald Trump talking of a possible regime change.
“It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???” Trump posted on social media. “MIGA!!!"
That was a reversal from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Sunday morning news conference that detailed the aerial bombing. “This mission was not and has not been about regime change,” he said.
Iran lashed out at the U.S. for crossing "a very big red line" with its in striking the nuclear sites.Amid fears of a wider regional conflict, and calls for restraint.
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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends a protest Sunday in Tehran, Iran, following the U.S. attacks on nuclear sites in the country.
“The U.S. has attacked us; what would you do in such a situation? Naturally, they must receive a response to their aggression,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a call with France’s leader, according to the president's website.
Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, told an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council that the U.S. "decided to destroy diplomacy,” and the Iranian military will decide the “timing, nature and scale” of the country's "proportionate response.”
Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, said any country used by the U.S. to strike Iran ”will be a legitimate target for our armed forces,” the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
The Trump administration also indicated it wanted to restart diplomatic talks with Iran.
“Let's meet directly,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with CBS. Hegseth told reporters the U.S. “does not seek war.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calls on reporters for questions Sunday during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington.
But Tehran said the time for diplomacy passed and it has the right to defend itself.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he would fly to Moscow to coordinate with close ally Russia.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran confirmed attacks took place on the .
Trump claimed the U.S. "completely and fully obliterated" the sites, but the Pentagon reported "sustained, extremely severe damage and destruction." U.S. defense officials said an assessment was ongoing.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that no one was in a position to assess the underground damage at Fordo, but he said visible craters tracked with the U.S. announcements. He said IAEA inspectors in Iran should be allowed to look at the sites.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog's Board of Governors planned to hold an emergency meeting Monday.
For Iran's supreme leader, it could mark the end of an ambitious campaign to transform the Islamic Republic into a greater regional power that holds enriched nuclear material a step away from weapons-grade. warned the U.S. on Wednesday that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will "result in irreparable damage for them."

President Donald Trump speaks late Saturday from the East Room of the White House in Washington as, from left, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth listen.
Trump, who acted without congressional authorization, earlier warned there would be additional strikes if Tehran retaliates against U.S. forces.
The State Department doubled the number of emergency evacuation flights it is providing for U.S. citizens wishing to leave Israel, ordered nonessential staff to leave the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon and stepped up travel warnings around the .
Iran has a few ways it could retaliate. It could attack U.S. forces stationed in the Middle East with missiles and rockets that Israel hasn't destroyed. It could attempt to close a key bottleneck for global oil supplies, the Strait of Hormuz.
Or it could hurry to develop a nuclear weapon with what remains of its program. Iran's Atomic Energy Organization insisted its nuclear program will not be stopped.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine speaks Sunday about U.S. military strikes in Iran during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington.
Iran long maintained that its nuclear program was peaceful, and U.S. intelligence agencies assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb. However, Trump and Israeli leaders argued that Iran could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon.
Israel already significantly degraded Iran's air defenses and offensive missile capabilities and damaged its nuclear enrichment facilities in assaults that .
“We are very close to achieving our goals” in removing the threats, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Sunday.
The strike on Fordo raised an urgent question — what happened to Iran's stockpile of uranium and centrifuges?
Satellite images taken by Planet Labs PBC after the American strikes show damage to the facility.

This satellite picture shows Iran's underground nuclear enrichment site at Fordo on Sunday following U.S. airstrikes targeted the facility.
The images suggest Iran packed the entrance tunnels to Fordo with dirt and had trucks at the facility ahead of the U.S. strikes. Several Iranian officials claimed Iran removed nuclear material from targeted sites.
Before the Israeli military campaign began, Iran declared a third, unknown site as a new enrichment facility.
Israel and Iran continued to trade strikes Sunday.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it launched a . Israeli authorities reported more than 80 people were injured, and a multistory building in Tel Aviv was significantly damaged.

Israeli soldiers on Sunday inspect a site in Tel Aviv, Israel, that was struck by a missile launched from Iran.
Late Sunday, the Israeli military said it again struck military infrastructure sites in Tehran and western Iran. Earlier, explosions boomed in Bushehr, home to Iran’s only nuclear power plant, three semiofficial media outlets reported. Israel’s military said it struck missile launchers in Bushehr, Isfahan and Ahvaz, as well as a command center in the Yazd area where it said missiles were stored.
Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 950 people and wounded 3,450 others, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists. The group said of those dead, it identified 380 civilians and 253 security force personnel.
In Israel, at least 24 people have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded.
Photos show damage in Haifa and Tel Aviv after Iranian missile barrage

Rescue workers and security forces work at the site of a direct missile strike launched from Iran in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Firefighters, rescue workers and military gather at the site of a direct missile strike launched from Iran in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Israel's home front command officers survey the site where a missile launched from Iran struck in Nes Ziona ,Israel, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Rescue workers and firefighters survey the site of a direct missile strike launched from Iran in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Israel's home front command officers survey the site of a direct missile strike launched from Iran in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Israeli soldiers inspect the site struck by a direct missile strike launched from Iran in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A torn-out tree lies among the rubble as firefighters, rescue workers, and military personnel survey the site of a direct missile strike launched from Iran in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Rescue workers and firefighters survey the site of a direct missile strike launched from Iran in Nes Ziona ,Israel, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A woman looks through a hole in a partially damaged metal wall near the site of a direct missile strike launched from Iran, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A rescue worker evacuates a woman from the site where a missile launched from Iran struck in Nes Ziona ,Israel, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

People react next to the site of a direct missile strike launched from Iran in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Rescue workers and residents react at the site where a missile launched from Iran struck in Haifa, Israel, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Medics evacuate a woman injured in an Iranian missile strike in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A rescue worker carries two children as residents evacuate from the site where a missile launched from Iran struck Haifa, Israel, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

A woman talks on her cellphone at the site where a missile launched from Iran struck in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Residents check their cell phones at a shelter during an alarm for incoming missiles launched from Iran in Haifa, Israel, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Residents check their cell phones at a shelter during an alarm for incoming missiles launched from Iran in Haifa, Israel, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Israeli soldiers from the Home Front Command gather at the site of an Iranian missile strike in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A poster of the Mona Lisa hangs in a shattered storefront window at the site where a missile launched from Iran struck in Haifa, Israel, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

An Israeli border police officer helps residents to evacuate from a building damaged in an Iranian missile strike in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)