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President Donald Trump has 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.
Mr Trump admitted the early intelligence was “very inconclusive” before doubling down on his claims the attack destroyed the nuclear sites.
Iran admitted the country’s nuclear sites had been badly damaged.
Earlier, Mr Trump claimed he had “stopped the war” as a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran appeared to hold. “It was my great honor to Destroy All Nuclear facilities & capability, and then, STOP THE WAR!” he wrote.
Iran reveals its official death toll
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.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar26 June 2025 04:14
Trump demands end of Netanyahu's graft trial
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.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar26 June 2025 04:13
US hospitals on high alert for cyberattacks
Jane Dalton26 June 2025 04:04
In pictures: Protests in Iran and Iraq
Jane Dalton26 June 2025 03:03
Iran set to block nuclear watchdog inspections
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.
Jane Dalton26 June 2025 02:02
Questions and challenges faced by Iran's leaders
Iran’s battered theocracy and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei must regroup and rebuild in a changed landscape:
Jane Dalton26 June 2025 01:01
Israel says Iran's nuclear project 'devastating'
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.
Jane Dalton25 June 2025 23:59
Watch: Trump may have just compromised Israeli secrets – again
Jane Dalton25 June 2025 22:59
Recap: Experts fear Iran protected nuclear materials before strike
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".
Jane Dalton25 June 2025 21:55
Iran's nuclear project severely damaged, says CIA chief
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.
Jane Dalton25 June 2025 21:38
