在对伊朗核设施进行军事打击几个小时后，美国官员建议伊朗应该采取外交手段，而不是选择报复。
“中东的恶霸伊朗，现在必须缔造和平，”唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)总统周六晚些时候在对全国的讲话中说，他的两侧是副总统万斯(Vance)、国务卿马尔科·卢比奥(John Kerry)和国防部长皮特·黑格塞斯(Pete Hegseth)。
“这不能再继续下去了。对伊朗来说，要么是和平，要么是比我们过去八天目睹的更大的悲剧，”特朗普说。
美国官员周日上午对总统的信息加倍重视，呼吁开展外交进程，并威胁伊朗，如果它选择对美国的攻击进行报复，将采取额外的军事行动。
万斯暗示，除了打击伊朗核项目之外，美国对更广泛的战争或冲突不感兴趣。
“我们没有与伊朗交战;万斯在美国广播公司新闻节目《本周》中说:“我们正与伊朗的核计划开战。”
在a五角大楼新闻发布会Hegseth说，核计划是“总统设定的路线”,“压倒性的”军事行动应该带来和平。
“从这个意义上说，伊朗有一个选择，”黑格斯说。“但我们已经向他们说得很清楚了——这是核设施，这是核能力。这是总统设定的界限，我们把它往后推了一步。”
“现在是为和平挺身而出的时候了，”他说。
国防部长没有澄清任何潜在的谈判参数，但表示美国正在直接向伊朗发出信息，“给他们一切机会来谈判。”
他说:“他们确切地了解美国的立场，确切地了解他们可以采取什么步骤来实现和平，我们希望他们这样做。”。
赫格塞斯说，美国袭击的范围是“有意限制的”，不是为了“政权更迭”。美国袭击了三个核设施，包括位于福尔多地下深处的铀浓缩设施
黑格塞斯说，特朗普下令进攻“肯定不是无限期的”，称这次袭击是“摧毁伊朗核能力的集中、强大和明确的任务。”
“那些是目标。这就是被击中的。这是压倒性的，”国防部长说。
赫格塞斯和参谋长联席会议主席丹·凯恩将军周日在五角大楼对记者说，美国已准备好应对伊朗的潜在回应。
凯恩说，“伊朗的任何报复或代理攻击……都将是一个极其糟糕的选择，”赫格塞斯指出了美国及其盟友在伊朗附近的资产。
国防部长说，包括7架隐形轰炸机在内的14次大规模空袭“摧毁”了他们的目标，并“摧毁”了德黑兰的核野心
凯恩说损失评估是“太早了但是他说这次行动已经“严重破坏”了目标设施。
总统周六表示，伊朗的报复将相当于升级，并将使美国的袭击比核设施的袭击“更糟糕”。
相反，特朗普、万斯、卢比奥和黑格斯正在向伊朗发出信号，要求它回到谈判桌前讨论伊朗核计划。
此前，美国和伊朗举行了五轮外交会谈，第六轮会谈已在计划中以色列上周袭击了伊朗，周六美国也加入了打击行动。
伊朗外交部长阿巴斯·阿拉格奇(Abbas Araghchi)周日表示:“我认为要求伊朗重返外交是不相关的，因为我们正在进行外交。”。
“当以色列炸毁它的时候，我们正在和美国谈判。再说一次，我们正在与欧洲人进行会谈和谈判，(这是)两天前在日内瓦发生的，而这一次美国人决定炸毁它，”他说，指的是他周五与欧洲领导人匆忙安排的会议。
“所以我们在外交上。但我们遭到了攻击，”他补充道。
美国最高外交官卢比奥称这些会谈是德黑兰的拖延战术。
“他们打了太多的比赛，”他周日在福克斯新闻频道说道。“他们利用外交手段来隐藏和混淆视听，并认为他们可以为自己争取时间。他们认为他们很可爱，他们不可爱，他们不会逃脱这种事情，不会在特朗普总统的领导下。”
卢比奥一再表示，改变政权不是袭击的目标，但他暗示，伊朗重新发展核力量将改变华盛顿的算盘。
“如果伊朗致力于成为一个核武器大国，我确实认为这将使伊朗政权处于危险之中。我认为，如果他们试图这样做，这将是该政权的末日，”他说。
US leaders warn Iran against retaliation after strikes on nuclear facilities
In the hours after its military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, U.S. officials suggested Iran ought to embrace a diplomatic off-ramp rather than choosing to retaliate.
"Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace," President Donald Trump said late Saturday in an address to the nation, flanked by Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
"This cannot continue. There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days," Trump said.
U.S. officials on Sunday morning doubled down on the president’s message, calling for a diplomatic process and threatening Iran with additional military action should it choose to retailiate for the U.S. attack.
Vance suggested the U.S. was not interested in a broader war or a conflict beyond its strikes on the Iranian nuclear program.
“We're not at war with Iran; we're at war with Iran's nuclear program,” Vance said on ABC News' "This Week."
At aPentagon news conference, Hegseth said the nuclear program was “the line the president set” and that the “overwhelming” military action should invite peace.
“Iran, in that sense, has a choice,” Hegseth said. “But we've made it very clear to them -- this is nuclear sites, this is nuclear capabilities. This is the line that the president set, and we set that back.”
“Now is the time to come forward for peace,” he said.
The defense secretary did not clarify any potential parameters for negotiations but said the U.S. was sending messages directly to Iran and “giving them every opportunity to come to the table.”
“They understand precisely what the American position is, precisely what steps they can take to allow for peace, and we hope they do so,” he said.
Hegseth said the scope of the U.S. attack -- which struck three nuclear sites including the uranium enrichment facility located deep underground in Fordo -- was “intentionally limited" and not aimed at "regime change."
Trump ordered that the offensive "is most certainly not open-ended,” Hegseth said, calling the attack “a focused, powerful and clear mission on the destruction of Iranian nuclear capabilities.”
“Those were the targets. That's what was struck. That was overwhelming,” the defense secretary said.
Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon on Sunday that the U.S. was prepared for a potential response from Iran.
Caine said “any Iranian retaliation or proxy attacks…would be an incredibly poor choice,” and Hegseth noted U.S. and allies’ assets near Iran.
The secretary said the strikes -- which included 14 massive ordnances flown by seven stealth bombers -- "devastated" their targets and left Tehran's nuclear ambitions "obliterated."
Caine said a damage assessment was "way too early" to report, but said the operation had “severely damaged” the targeted facilities.
The president suggested Saturday that Iranian retaliation would amount to an escalation and would warrant U.S. attacks which would be “far worse” than the strikes on nuclear sites.
Instead, Trump, Vance, Rubio and Hegseth are signaling to Iran that it should return to the negotiating table to discuss Iran’s nuclear program.
The U.S. and Iran held five rounds of diplomatic talks -- with a sixth round scheduled -- beforeIsraelattacked Iran last week and the U.S. joined with strikes of its own on Saturday.
“I think it is irrelevant to ask Iran to return to diplomacy because we were in the middle of diplomacy,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday.
“We were in the middle of talks with the United States when [the] Israelis blew it up. And again, we were in the middle of talks and negotiation with Europeans, [which] happened only two days ago in Geneva, when this time Americans decided to blow it up,” he said,– referencing his hastily arranged meetings with European leaders on Friday.
“So we were in diplomacy. But we were attacked,” he added.
Rubio, America’s top diplomat, characterized those talks as delaying tactics by Tehran.
“They play too many games,” he said Sunday on Fox News. “They use diplomacy to hide behind and obfuscate and think they can buy themselves time. They think they're cute, they're not cute, and they're not going to get away with this stuff, not under President Trump.”
Rubio said repeatedly that regime change was not the objective of the attacks, but he suggested a renewed Iranian nuclear buildup would change Washington’s calculus.
“If Iran is committed to becoming a nuclear-weapons power, I do think it puts the regime at risk. I think it would be the end of the regime if they tried to do that,” he said.
