
Russia says it is too early to assess US bomb damage to Iranian nuclear facilities
MOSCOW, June 25 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday that it thought it was too early for anyone to have an accurate picture of the extent of damage inflicted on Iran's nuclear facilities by U.S. bombing last weekend.
Asked if Russia had its own information on the degree of damage, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "No. I don't think that anyone can have realistic data now. It's probably too early, we need to wait until such data appears."
U.S. President Donald Trump said at the weekend that the strikes had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear facilities.
However, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that a preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment had determined that the attacks had set back Tehran's programme by only a matter of months.
Russia has condemned the strikes on Iran, with which it signed a strategic cooperation agreement in January, as illegal, unjustified and unprovoked.
Peskov said Russia had indications that there were open communications channels between Washington and Tehran, adding that Moscow was closely monitoring developments and still talking to Iran itself.
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Reuters
27 minutes ago
- Reuters
US and Iran disagree on scale of damage to nuclear facilities from US strikes, Kremlin aide says
MOSCOW, June 25 (Reuters) - The United States and Iran disagree when it comes to how much damage U.S. air strikes caused to Iranian nuclear facilities, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday. Ushakov said Moscow welcomed the ceasefire between Iran and Israel and hoped it lasted and noted what he said were differing assessments of the impact of the U.S. attack. "The one that carried out the strikes believes significant damage was inflicted. And the one who received these strikes believes that everything was prepared in advance and that these objects did not suffer excessive, significant damage," Ushakov told reporters. A spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry said earlier on Wednesday that the U.S. strikes had caused significant damage to Tehran's nuclear facilities. Earlier in the day, the Kremlin had said it thought it was too early for anyone to have an accurate picture of the extent of damage caused.


The Independent
28 minutes ago
- The Independent
NATO boss praises ‘Dear Donald' for pushing alliance to boost defense spending: ‘You made this change possible'
Eight years after Donald Trump used his first appearance at a NATO leaders summit to castigate members of the alliance for 'not paying what they should be paying' for their own defense needs, the 32-member bloc is pledging to more than double their military budgeting commitments — and the American president is getting credit. Speaking at the outset of the group's annual confab at The Hague, Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance was poised to take 'historic, transformational decisions to make our people safer, through a stronger, fairer and more lethal NATO ' by implementing a 'concrete plan' for each member of the alliance to spend a full five percent of gross domestic product on defense, through a combination of 'core defense' and 'defense and security-related investments.' Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister who was selected as NATO's chief civil servant and diplomat last year, said the move was 'required' to make the alliance 'fairer' by ensuring that each member 'contributes their fair share for security' as he echoed a complaint voiced by Trump during his first summit in 2017, when the American leader groused that members' failure to meet a two percent defense spending threshold was 'not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States.' 'For too long, one ally, the United States carried too much of the burden of that commitment, and that changes today,' Rutte added. The NATO leader then began praising Trump in a section of his remarks that evoked the statements of adulation that are heard at the American leader's cabinet meetings, addressing him first as 'President Trump,' then as 'dear Donald' before saying it was Trump who 'made this change possible.' 'Your leadership on this has already produced $1 trillion in extra spending from European allies since 2016 and the decisions today will produce trillions more for our common defense to make us stronger and fairer by equalizing spending between America and America's allies,' he said. He added that NATO members would also agree to 'further increase defense production' with what he described as 'a huge expansion of our defense industrial base on both sides of the Atlantic,' calling the development 'good for our security' as well as 'good for our economies and good for our jobs.' Rutte's remarks echoed a text message he'd sent to Trump the day before — which the president had captured in a screen grab he then posted to social media — in which he congratulated Trump for 'decisive action' in ordering airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend and hailed him as 'flying into another big success in The Hague' on account of the agreement for NATO members to up their defense spending to five percent of GDP. 'You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done. Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win,' he said. When the 32 heads of state and government representing each of the allies met on Wednesday, they agreed to ratify the five percent threshold, writing in a joint declaration that each nation would commit to that minimum expenditure 'annually on core defense requirements as well as defense-and security-related spending by 2035 to ensure our individual and collective obligations.' Of that amount, 3.5 percent of each country's GDP will go to 'resource core defense requirements' with the remaining 1.5 percent allocated for 'critical infrastructure' protection as well as 'civil preparedness and resilience' and strengthening countries' defense industrial bases. Each country will be required to submit annual plans to show 'a credible, incremental path' to reaching the five percent spending threshold, the declaration said. In what appeared to be another carrot aimed at garnering the president's support, the NATO leaders also stated a commitment to 'eliminate defense trade barriers' and 'promote defense industrial cooperation' by leveraging transatlantic partnerships, as well as as an agreement to reaffirm 'enduring sovereign commitments to provide support to Ukraine ' including 'direct contributions towards Ukraine's defense and its defense industry' that can be counted towards the five percent of GDP require for defense spending. The NATO leaders' agreement to step up their defense spending comes after years of pressure from Trump, including both implicit and explicit threats to the alliance's mutual defense provisions, raising fears that the American leader would either pull the United States out of the alliance entirely or simply refuse to come to another nation's aid in the event of an attack. Former officials who served in Trump's first administration have said that he expressed a desire to exit the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty, which he has long described as something akin to a mafia protection racket or a country club in which member states pay 'dues' in exchange for American military protection. During last year's presidential campaign, Trump went so far as to say that he'd 'encourage' Russia to 'do whatever the hell they want' to a NATO ally if that country were 'delinquent' on defense spending, prompting Rutte's predecessor, Jens Stoltenberg, to state that a suggestion that "allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security." His remarks on the campaign trail were part of a pattern set during his first appearance at a NATO summit in 2017, when he claimed 'many' allies owed 'massive amounts of money from past years and not paying in those past years,' which he continued as recently as Tuesday, when he refused to state whether he would commit the United States to continued support of the mutual defense provision in the NATO treaty that saw America's allies come to her aid after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington. 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And as he sat next to Rutte during a brief media availability Wednesday morning, Trump appeared to have found more favorable feelings towards Article Five when he was asked once more about his support for the mutual aid provision. 'We're with them all the way,' he said. Asked to clarify his stance during a later bilateral meeting alongside Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Trump replied: 'I stand with it.' 'That's why I'm here. If I didn't stand with it, I wouldn't be here,' he said.


Economist
35 minutes ago
- Economist
Trump loves quick wins. He'll struggle to get one in Iran
AFTER THE elation, the doubt. President Donald Trump said that 'Operation Midnight Hammer', had 'totally obliterated' Iran's uranium-enrichment facilities. But now an early intelligence assessment leaked on June 24th suggests the nuclear programme has only been set back by months and that some enriched uranium may have been spirited away. The report is an early 'low-confidence' assessment that both the Trump administration and Israeli sources eschew. But it illuminates a bigger problem. Mr Trump wants a quick-fix to the Iran nightmare with a single, clarifying mega-strike, a ceasefire and then prosperity. Instead America faces years of uncertainty over Iran's capabilities and intentions. As a result Mr Trump's assumption—that he can have a one-day Middle East military triumph and then quickly secure a lasting deal—may be badly misplaced.