Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the NATO Summit, The Hague, June 25, 2025

EA on International Media: How Iran Maneuvered Trump Into Tweeting “Ceasefire”

Q&A: Israel, Iran, and Trump — Escalation or Ceasefire?

No, US Strikes Did Not “Obliterate” Iran’s Nuclear Program

UPDATE 1537 GMT:

In a radio interview, Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz discussed the Netanyahu Government’s intention to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader.

“If he had been in our sights, we would have taken him out,” Katz said. “We wanted to eliminate Khamenei, but there was no operational opportunity.”

US officials have said that the Trump Administration vetoed Israel’s request for approval of the plan, but Katz declared, “We don’t need permission for these things.”

UPDATE 1530 GMT:

Iran’s Guardian Council, which vets all legislation, has approved the bill to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran’s Parliament, the Majlis, passed the measure 221-0 on Wednesday.

The bill will now be submitted to President Masoud Pezeshkian for final ratification.

Guardian Council spokesperson Hadi Tahan Nazif said, “The government is required to suspend all cooperation with the IAEA to ensure full respect for the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had urged Tehran not to take the step, “We are interested in continuing cooperation between Iran and the IAEA, so that everybody respects Iran’s repeated statements that Iran does not have and will not have plans to develop a nuclear weapon.”

UPDATE 1328 GMT:

Donald Trump has tried another line to dismiss US intelligence of limited damage from American strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Trump snapped that, contrary to the intelligence, neither equipment nor uranium stocks were taken out of the sites before the US attacks.

The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a press briefing, “I’m not aware of any intelligence that I’ve reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be, moved or otherwise.”

But “two people briefed on preliminary intelligence assessments” say European countries believe Iran’s stockpile of 408 kg (899 pounds) of 60% uranium enriched close to weapons-grade levels was not concentrated in the Fordoo underground complex at the time of the attacks.

UPDATE 1139 GMT:

Iran’s Supreme Leader has declared in a pre-recorded televised address to the nation:

I offer my congratulations on the victory over the fallacious Zionist regime….

The Zionist regime was practically knocked out and crushed under the blows of the Islamic Republic.

Ayatollah Khamenei then risked the ceasefire with a verbal punch at Donald Trump:

The fact that the Islamic republic has access to important American centers in the region and can take action against them whenever it deems necessary is not a small incident, it is a major incident, and this incident can be repeated in the future if an attack is made.

The US regime entered the war directly because it felt that if it didn’t, the Zionist regime would be completely destroyed. It entered the war in an effort to save that regime but achieved nothing.

The Islamic Republic delivered a heavy slap to the US’s face. It attacked and inflicted damage on the Al-Udeid Air Base, which is one of the key US bases in the region.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately tried to take advantage, as Trump called on judicial authorities to drop the bribery charges against the Israeli leader:

UPDATE 1134 GMT:

Having falsely declared for a decade that Barack Obama “gave” millions of dollars to Iran under the 2015 nuclear agreement, Donald Trump has removed sanctions on sales of Iranian oil to China.

UPDATE 0924 GMT:

At least 823 Iranians are facing political or security-related charges since Israel’s war on Iran began June 13. Of those, 286 were detained over online activities, including sharing content about Israeli attacks, according to the US-based human rights group HRANA.

Iranian authorities have opened judicial cases against 47 citizens on charges including “collaboration with Israel”, said the judiciary chief of Fars Province on Thursday.

UPDATE 0908 GMT:

International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi says centrifuges at Iran’s Fordoo underground nuclear facility are no longer operational because of damage from Saturday’s US strikes with “bunker buster” bombs.

“Given the power of these bombs and technical characteristics of the centrifuges, we do know that they are no longer operational, simply because of the vibration, which causes considerable, important physical damage,” Grossi told Radio France Internationale.

He said satellite images indicate the enrichment hall at Fordoo was likely hit.

Grossi added that Iran has not responded to the agency’s request to resume inspections: “The agency’s presence in Iran is not a gesture of generosity, it’s an international responsibility.

Iran’s parliament voted Wednesday to suspend cooperation with the IAEA. The Supreme National Security Council must approve the move.

UPDATE 0835 GMT:

Donald Trump has threatened sue The New York Times for libel, over its reporting on the Defense Intelligence Agency initial assessment finding limited damage from US strikes on Iran’ nuclear sites.

A letter from Trump’s personal lawyer challenged the assessment that the US attack sealed off entrances to the Fordoo and Natanz facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings. It also objected to the DIA’s observation that much of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium had been moved out of the sites.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Trump Administration officials scrambled on Wednesday, sometimes angrily and desperately, over an initial intelligence assessment that US strikes last Saturday caused only limited damage to three of Iran’s nuclear sites.

Donald Trump repeated throughout the day that Tehran’s nuclear program at Fordoo, Isfahan, and Natanz was “obliterated”. He derided outlets who reported the assessment, from the Defense Intelligence Agency, and quoted US officials as “real scum”.

Prompted by Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth assailed journalists, “They want to spin it to try to make him look bad,” and announced an FBI investigation into the leak of the assessment. Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to dismiss the substance: “This is what a leaker is telling you. This is the game they play.”

Director of National Tulsi Gabbard, who has been berated by Trump for presenting agency analysis that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapons program, fell into line, “Iran’s nuclear facilities have been destroyed.”

CIA Director John Ratcliffe proclaimed that a “historically reliable” source indicated that “several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years”.

None of them produced any evidence for their assertions.

No Confirmation of “Obliteration”

The Defense Intelligence Agency report, based on Battle Damage Assessment from US Central Command, said Saturday’s strikes likely set back Iran’s program by only a few months.

With “bunker buster” bombs, the US had tried to reach the Fordoo uranium enrichment facility, buried deep inside a mountain in central Iran. While causing damage, the extent of the effect underground was not clear.

American strikes had not hit key buildings at Isfahan, where uranium is stored, and there was no attack at all on the new underground area, with more than 10,000 square meters for centrifuges and uranium, at Natanz.

There was some comfort for the Trump camp from Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei, who said, “Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure.”

However, Iranian claims that much of the uranium and equipment had been moved out of the sites before the attacks were implicitly supported by International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi.

He said the Agency had lost “visibility” of the material when “hostilities began”, but indciated that the IAEA knew it had been moved: “I don’t want to give the impression that it’s been lost or hidden.”

The Director General added, “In any case, the technological knowledge is there and the industrial capacity is there. That, no one can deny. So we need to work together with them.”

Again without evidence, the White House pushed back. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted the US had “no indication that that enriched uranium was moved prior to the strikes”.

The Administration cancelled a briefing for legislators on Tuesday. They rescheduled it for Thursday, but are limiting the sharing of classified intelligence.

Director of National Intelligence Gabbard has been excluded. Instead, the White House is sending Defense Secretary Hegseth, Secretary of State Rubio, CIA Director Ratcliffe, and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Ratcliffe was only added to the list after senators expressed concern over the absence of intelligence officials at the briefing.

Division Within Israel

Israeli officials gave conflicting responses.

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said, “It is still too early to determine, we are investigating the results of the strikes on the different sections of the nuclear program.”

He maintained, “The assessment is that we significantly damaged the nuclear program, and I can say we set it back by years.”

But two Israel officials said the outcome at Fordoo was “really not good”. They were “unaware of how much enriched uranium Iran may have relocated ahead of the strikes, or how many centrifuges remain and are usable to enrich uranium in the future”.

Other officials knocked back Trump’s claim of a secret Israeli operation to inspect Fordoo which found “total obliteration”, saying they were unaware of it.

One official noted that conclusive findings may take months, if they are obtained at all.