Key events
Trump insists Iranian nuclear sites ‘completely destroyed’ and attacks media
Donald Trump has blasted CNN and the New York Times, claiming they have teamed up to “demean one of the most successful military strikes in history”, and has declared Iran’s nuclear sites are “completely destroyed”.
The US president also claimed in the post on his Truth Social platform that the two media organisations are “getting slammed by the public”.
Trump’s statement came after reporting of an initial classified US assessment of his strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend said they did not destroy two of the sites and likely only set back the nuclear program by a few months, according to two people familiar with the report.
The report produced by the Pentagon’s intelligence arm concluded – as earlier detailed – that key components of the nuclear program including centrifuges were capable of being restarted within months. The report also found that much of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium that could be put to use for a possible nuclear weapon was moved before the strikes and may have been moved to other secret nuclear sites maintained by Iran.
The White House said the intelligence report was “flat-out wrong”.
Here is Trump’s Truth Social post on Wednesday in full:
FAKE NEWS CNN, TOGETHER WITH THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES, HAVE TEAMED UP IN AN ATTEMPT TO DEMEAN ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MILITARY STRIKES IN HISTORY. THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED! BOTH THE TIIMES AND CNN ARE GETTING SLAMMED BY THE PUBLIC!
Opening summary
Welcome to our rolling coverage of the Israel-Iran war.
The shaky ceasefire between Israel and Iran appeared to be holding after Donald Trump expressed deep frustration with both sides for violating the agreement he brokered.
Israel earlier accused Iran of launching missiles into its airspace after the truce was supposed to take effect. The Iranian military denied firing on Israel.
But while Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Israel had brought Iran’s nuclear program “to ruin”, an initial classified US assessment of Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend says they did not destroy two of the sites and likely only set back the nuclear program by a few months, according to two people familiar with the report.
The report produced by the Defence Intelligence Agency – the Pentagon’s intelligence arm – concluded key components of the nuclear program, including centrifuges, were capable of being restarted within months. The report also found that much of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium was moved before the strikes.
The report also contradicts statements from Trump, who has said the Iranian nuclear program was “completely and fully obliterated”. The White House called the assessment “flat-out wrong”.
In other key developments:
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Iran and Israel both said they would honour the ceasefire if the other side did the same. Earlier on Tuesday Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would respect the ceasefire announced by Trump, provided that Israel also upholds its terms. “If the Zionist regime does not violate the ceasefire, Iran will not violate it either,” he said. Hours later, Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said he told his US counterpart Pete Hegseth that “Israel will respect the ceasefire – as long as the other side does”.
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Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would strike again if Iran rebuilt its nuclear project. Describing his war on Iran as a “historic victory” that “will stand for generations”, the Israeli prime minister claimed that Israel, in its 12 days of war with Iran, had removed “the threat of nuclear annihilation”. He also said he had “no intention of easing off the gas pedal” and Israel “must complete” its campaign against the Iranian axis, to defeat Hamas and to bring about the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
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Netanyahu also declared that Israel “never had a better friend that President Trump in the White House”. His comments came only hours after Trump directed stinging criticism at Israel over the scale of strikes Trump said violated the truce with Iran negotiated by Washington, with the US president saying: “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before, the biggest load that we’ve seen. We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.” Israel’s leadership was reportedly “stunned” and “embarrassed” by Trump’s rebuke.
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Iran’s air space would reopen on Tuesday night, Iranian state news reported, while Israel Home Front Command said Israeli citizens could resume full activity without restriction for most of the country and that Ben-Gurion and Haifa airports would return to full operations.
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Donald Trump said China can continue to purchase Iranian oil, a move the White House clarified did not indicate a relaxation of US sanctions.
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At the United Nations, France and its European partners are still prepared to reactivate sanctions on Iran if an agreement is not reached soon on its nuclear program, the French ambassador to the UN has warned.
