Iran-Israel newest: Trump compares US strikes on nuclear websites to Hiroshima atomic bombing
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.
A leaked preliminary intelligence assessment reportedly found that the US military strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities at the weekend did not destroy the country’s nuclear programme.
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’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.
Trump envoy ‘hopeful’ of peace deal with Iran
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
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
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.
Iranian supreme leader will be toppled, Nobel Peace laureate predicts
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
The war brings the end of the Islamic Republic closer than ever, writes Azadeh Eftekhari:
Trump says Iran needs cash to rebuild country
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.
Source: independent.co.uk
