“Remember, Iran cannot have any nuclear weapons. Very simple. Don’t have to go too deep into it. They just can’t have nuclear weapons.” “Iran’s leaders should understand that I do not have a policy of containment; I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

Iran has spent decades building multi-tiered military capabilities at home and across the region that were at least partly aimed at deterring the United States from attacking it.

Ballistic experts say it's too soon to determine how much damage Iran's nuclear facilities sustained in the weekend attack. On Saturday night, the United States targeted nuclear sites in Iran believed to be essential to the country's ability to produce nuclear weapons: a uranium enrichment site located in northwestern Iran -- deep inside a mountain in Fordo -- along with another uranium enrichment site in Natanz and the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center,