Former George W. Bush Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities this week.
Rice called the operation a significant blow to Tehran’s capabilities and a boost for American strength on the world stage.
Appearing on Fox News’s “Special Report” on Thursday, Rice lauded the joint military campaign for delivering decisive damage to Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and underlined the strategic message it sends to U.S. adversaries.
“We will eventually know precisely how much the Iranian program was damaged, but I think all of the evidence is that it was substantially, significantly damaged to the place that, for a while at least, it will be hard to build a nuclear weapon,” Rice told anchor Bret Baier.
The coordinated assault, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, was carried out early Sunday morning, targeting Iran’s key nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
According to defense officials, the United States deployed B-2 stealth bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.
The bombers flew 37 hours nonstop to deliver twelve GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators to Fordow and Natanz.
Additionally, over two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from a U.S. submarine, striking the Isfahan site.
Despite questions from some intelligence sources about the extent of the damage, senior officials from the Trump administration have described the operation as a strategic and technical success.
During a Thursday press briefing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said:
“President Trump directed the most complex and secretive military operation in history.
“And it was a resounding success, resulting in a ceasefire agreement and the end of the 12-Day War.
“Because of decisive military action, President Trump created the conditions to end the war, decimating, choose your word—obliterating, destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities.”
Rice echoed that assessment and criticized a leaked Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report that downplayed the impact of the strikes, calling the report “irresponsible.”
“When you look at what the Israelis were able to do to Hezbollah, what they were able to do to Hamas—the significant efforts against the Iranian military establishment, against scientists,” she said.
“This really is a now-crippled Iran, and a crippled Iran is good for the region.”
The Trump administration has reportedly opened backchannel diplomatic discussions with Tehran following the strikes.
However, Rice was skeptical that Iran would pursue any form of meaningful peace, citing decades of hostility.
“We’ve had 46 years of the Iranians destabilizing the region, killing Americans,” Rice said.
“We’ve had 46 years of their proxies holding terror against Israel, against Iraq, against the people of the Middle East.
“So, no, they don’t want peace.”
She also framed the military success as a critical moment for American leadership on the global stage, especially after what she called the Biden administration’s damaging foreign policy record.
“Credibility is not something that you establish one day and then you sort of dial it in and say it’s done,” Rice said.
“We have to keep establishing that the United States is going to try and shape the international system, not just be a victim of it.
“But what’s happened in the last couple of days is very, very good for American credibility.”
The strikes follow a sharp increase in tensions in the region and growing bipartisan criticism of Iran’s continued enrichment of uranium and sponsorship of proxy terror groups.
Trump’s operation marks a key moment in what officials have called a “reset of American deterrence.”
Many argue this was lost under the prior administration.
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