LIVE – Updated at 05:01
CIA director John Ratcliffe says “new intelligence” indicates
Iran
‘s nuclear program was severely damaged by recent
US
strikes, and that it would take years to be rebuilt.
He was speaking after a leaked Defense Intelligence Agency assessment found that
Donald Trump
‘s airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear sites had only set back the country’s nuclear program by a matter of a few months.
President
Donald Trump
has repeatedly insisted the US bombing of
Iran’s nuclear facilities
was a success, claiming it obliterated
Tehran
’s nuclear programme and set it back decades.Mr Trump compared the US operation
to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings
in Japan, which killed an estimated 150,000 to 246,000 people, mostly civilians.
“That hit ended the war. I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima. I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing, that ended that war. This ended that with the war,” he said at
the Nato summit
.
A Trump-brokered fragile ceasefire between
Israel
and Iran continued to hold into Thursday, with Iran revealing over 600 people have died in Israeli airstrikes.
Key points
- Watch: Donald Trump compares US strike on Iran to Hiroshima bombing
- Iran’s nuclear programme severely damaged, says CIA chief
- US hospitals on high alert for cyberattacks in Iranian retaliation
- UN watchdog says its possible much of Iran’s enriched uranium survived bombardments
- Trump says future US strikes are possible if Iran tries to resume nuclear programme
- Iran executes three people accused of spying amid fears further executions could occur
CIA director says Iran’s nuclear sites ‘severely damaged’
04:47
,
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
CIA director John Ratcliffe has said that a body of credible intelligence indicated that Iran’s nuclear program was severely damaged by recent US strikes, and that it would take years to be rebuilt.
“This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years,” Mr Ratcliffe said in a statement.
His statement comes after a Defense Intelligence Agency initial assessment leaked on Tuesday found that the US bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites had only set back the country’s nuclear program by several months.
The CIA chief claimed that the new findings were based on “credible intelligence” and that they contradicted what he called “illegally sourced public reporting regarding the destruction of key Iranian nuclear facilities”.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that the US strikes “obliterated” the nuclear facilities, even though satellite images showed the strikes managed to cause limited damage to the sites.
Iran reveals its official death toll
04:14
,
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Iran’s health ministry has claimed that at least 610 people, including 13 children, were killed in Israel’s almost two-week-long airstrikes on Iran.
The ministry spokesperson said just over a hundred people were killed in the final night of the conflict before the ceasefire commenced on Tuesday.
Additionally, 4,700 people suffered injuries during the 12-day war, the spokesperson said.
The figures fell short of US-based human rights group HRANA’s estimated death toll of 1,054 people.
Trump demands end of Netanyahu’s graft trial
04:13
,
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
US president Donald Trump has demanded that the Israeli justice system drop its corruption case against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I was shocked to hear that the State of Israel, which has just had one of its Greatest Moments in History, and is strongly led by Bibi Netanyahu, is continuing its ridiculous Witch Hunt against their Great War Time Prime Minister!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
In his lengthy rant, Mr Trump called the case against his ally “politically motivated”.
“Bibi Netanyahu’s trial should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero, who has done so much for the State,” Mr Trump added.
US hospitals on high alert for cyberattacks
04:04
,
Jane Dalton
American hospitals, water dams and power plants are reportedly on high alert
for potential Iranian cyberattacks:
Iran retaliation fears as hospitals and power plants on high alert for cyberattacks
In pictures: Protests in Iran and Iraq
03:03
,
Jane Dalton
Iran set to block nuclear watchdog inspections
02:02
,
Jane Dalton
Iran’s parliament has agreed to fast-track a proposal that would effectively end co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN watchdog.
Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf criticised the IAEA for having “refused to even pretend to condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities” by the United States.
“For this reason, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran will suspend co-operation with the IAEA until security of nuclear facilities is ensured, and Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme will move forward at a faster pace,” Mr Qalibaf told politicians.
IAEA director-general Rafael Grossi said he had written to Iran to discuss resuming inspections of their nuclear facilities.
“We need to return,” he said.
Questions and challenges faced by Iran’s leaders
01:01
,
Jane Dalton
Iran’s battered theocracy and Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
must regroup and rebuild in a changed landscape:
A battered Iran faces an uncertain future after its grinding war with Israel
Israel says Iran’s nuclear project ‘devastating’
Wednesday 25 June 2025 23:59
,
Jane Dalton
Israel’s prime minister claims Iran’s nuclear programme has been set back “many years” following the US attack on the sites.
The Israel Atomic Energy Commission said: “The devastating US strike on Fordow destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable.
“We assess that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other elements of Iran’s military nuclear program, has set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.
The statement continued: “The achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told Al Jazeera that there was significant damage.
“Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure,” he said.
Watch: Trump may have just compromised Israeli secrets – again
Wednesday 25 June 2025 22:59
,
Jane Dalton
Recap: Experts fear Iran protected nuclear materials before strike
Wednesday 25 June 2025 21:55
,
Jane Dalton
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi informed UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi on the day Israel launched its military campaign against Iran that Tehran would “adopt special measures to protect our nuclear equipment and materials”.
American satellite imagery firm Maxar Technologies said its satellites photographed trucks and bulldozers at the Fordo site beginning on June 19, three days before the Americans struck.
Subsequent imagery “revealed that the tunnel entrances into the underground complex had been sealed off with dirt prior to the US airstrikes”, said Stephen Wood, senior director.
Some experts say those trucks could also have been used to move out Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile.
“It is plausible that Iran moved the material enriched to 60% out of Fordo and loaded it on a truck,” said Eric Brewer, a former US intelligence analyst, now deputy vice president at the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
Iran could also have moved other equipment, including centrifuges, he said, noting that while enriched uranium stored in fortified canisters is relatively easy to transport, delicate centrifuges are more challenging to move.
Kelsey Davenport, of the Arms Control Association, a nonpartisan policy center, said that if Iran had already diverted its centrifuges, it could “build a covert enrichment facility with a small footprint and inject the 60% gas into those centrifuges and quickly enrich to weapons grade levels”.
Iran’s nuclear project severely damaged, says CIA chief
Wednesday 25 June 2025 21:38
,
Jane Dalton
The head of the CIA has confirmed that “credible intelligence” suggests Iran’s nuclear programme was severely damaged by US strikes on it on Sunday.
John Ratcliffe said several key nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.
“This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years,” he said in a statement.
A leaked
preliminary intelligence assessment
reportedly found that the US military strikes did not destroy the country’s nuclear programme, but Donald Trump insisted they did.
Trump envoy ‘hopeful’ of peace deal with Iran
Wednesday 25 June 2025 21:33
,
Jane Dalton
Nuclear enrichment and weaponisation by Iran are red lines for the United States, president Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has said, adding that he was hopeful for a comprehensive peace agreement with Tehran.
“We can’t have weaponisation,” he told CNBC. “That will destabilise the entire region. Everyone will then need a bomb and we just can’t have that.”
Mossad chief thanks CIA
Wednesday 25 June 2025 21:00
,
Jane Dalton
In a rare video released by Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, its chief David Barnea thanked the CIA for being a key partner, and his own agents for work over months and years to achieve what was “unimaginable at first”.
“Thanks to accurate intelligence, advanced technologies and operational capabilities beyond imagination, we helped the Air Force strike the Iranian nuclear project, establish aerial superiority in Iranian skies and reduce the missile threat,” the agency wrote on social media.
Mass arrests begin amid fears of Iranian unrest, officials say
Wednesday 25 June 2025 20:25
,
Jane Dalton
Iranian authorities are intensifying a security crackdown across the country with mass arrests, executions and military deployments, particularly in the restive Kurdish region, officials and activists say.
Security forces are said to have started a campaign of widespread arrests accompanied by an intensified presence around checkpoints.
One senior Iranian security official and two other senior officials said the authorities were focused on the threat of possible internal unrest.
They said authorities were worried about Israeli agents, ethnic separatists and the People’s Mujahideen Organisation, an exiled opposition group that has previously staged attacks inside Iran.
Iran ‘hangs three prisoners for spying for Israel’
Wednesday 25 June 2025 19:55
,
Jane Dalton
Iran executes 3 more prisoners over allegedly spying for Israel, state media say
Iranian supreme leader will be toppled, Nobel Peace laureate predicts
Wednesday 25 June 2025 19:30
,
Jane Dalton
Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Shirin Ebadi
says Iran’s war with Israel has revealed the weakness of its “paper tiger” leadership, predicting that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will be toppled in a peaceful revolution.
“The people of Iran and the world saw that and realised what a paper tiger this administration is,” Ebadi told Reuters.
Ebadi has been a staunch critic of the Shi’ite Muslim clerical establishment that has ruled Iran since 1979.
Opinion: Islamic Republic’s authority is casualty of its war
Wednesday 25 June 2025 19:10
,
Jane Dalton
The war brings the end of the Islamic Republic closer than ever,
writes
Azadeh Eftekhari
:
The Islamic Republic’s authority is a casualty of its war with Israel
FBI probing Iran nuclear site damage report leak, Hegseth says
Wednesday 25 June 2025 18:44
,
Jane Dalton
Hegseth says FBI probing leak of ‘top secret’ Iran nuclear site damage report
Analysis: Trump may have just compromised Israeli secrets – again
Wednesday 25 June 2025 18:15
,
Jane Dalton
Trump may have just compromised Israeli secrets – again
Trump says Iran needs cash to rebuild country
Wednesday 25 June 2025 17:51
,
Jane Dalton
US president Donald Trump says the US has not given up applying maximum pressure on Iran, including restrictions on sales of its oil – but signalled a potential easing in enforcement to help the country rebuild.
“They’re going to need money to put that country back into shape. We want to see that happen,” Trump said at the Nato summit.
Yesterday he said China could continue to buy Iranian oil after Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire, but the White House later clarified that his comments did not indicate a relaxation of US sanctions.
US hospitals on high alert for cyberattacks
Wednesday 25 June 2025 17:31
,
Jane Dalton
American hospitals, water dams and power plants are reportedly on high alert
for potential Iranian cyberattacks:
Iran retaliation fears as hospitals and power plants on high alert for cyberattacks
Iran’s top military chief ‘dies of wounds’
Wednesday 25 June 2025 17:14
,
Jane Dalton
The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards command centre, Ali Shadmani, died of wounds sustained during Israel’s military strikes on the country, Iranian state media says.
The guards’ command centre vowed “harsh revenge” for his killing, state media added.
Israel’s armed forces had said last week they had killed Shadmani.
Donald Trump said then the US would not kill Iran’s supreme leader “at least not for now”.
Trump’s new threat to Iran: we won’t kill supreme leader – for now
Iran set to block nuclear watchdog inspections
Wednesday 25 June 2025 17:01
,
Jane Dalton
Iran’s parliament has agreed to fast-track a proposal that would effectively end co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN watchdog.
Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf criticised the IAEA for having “refused to even pretend to condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities” by the United States.
“For this reason, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran will suspend co-operation with the IAEA until security of nuclear facilities is ensured, and Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme will move forward at a faster pace,” Mr Qalibaf told politicians.
IAEA director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi said he had written to Iran to discuss resuming inspections of their nuclear facilities.
“We need to return,” he said.
Trump offers new peace hope with new US and Iran talks
Wednesday 25 June 2025 16:38
,
Jane Dalton
US president Donald Trump says US and Iranian officials will talk next week, giving rise to cautious hope for longer-term peace – although Tehran has insisted it will not give up its nuclear programme.
Mr Trump said he was not particularly interested in restarting negotiations with Iran.
“We may sign an agreement, I don’t know,” he said.
“The way I look at it, they fought, the war is done.”
Iran has not acknowledged any talks are taking place next week, though US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has said there has been direct and indirect communication between the countries.
A sixth round of negotiations between the US and Iran scheduled for earlier this month in Oman was cancelled when Israel attacked Iran.