US tells UN: strikes degraded Iran's capacity to build nuclear weapon

U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities "effectively fulfilled our narrow objective: to degrade Iran's capacity to produce a nuclear weapon," acting U.S. envoy to the U.N. Dorothy Shea told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

"These strikes – in accordance with the inherent right to collective self-defense, consistent with the U.N. Charter – aimed to mitigate the threat posed by Iran to Israel, the region and to, more broadly, international peace and security," Shea told the 15-member council.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said the strikes over the weekend "completely and totally obliterated"Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities. Earlier on Tuesday he announced that a ceasefire between Iran and Israel had started, according to Reuters.

"I think it's still early to assess all the strikes. We know we were able to push back the (nuclear) program. We were able to remove the imminent threat that we had," Israel's U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon told reporters on Tuesday.