US bombing of Iran's N-sites like Hiroshima, ended war with Israel: Trump
US President Donald Trump compared the impact of American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites to the end of World War Two on Wednesday, arguing that the damage was severe even though available intelligence reports were inconclusive.His comments followed reports by Reuters and other media outlets on Tuesday revealing that the US Defense Intelligence Agency had assessed that the strikes had set back Iran's nuclear program by just a few months, despite Trump and administration officials saying it had been obliterated.advertisement"The intelligence was ... very inconclusive," Trump told reporters while meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte ahead of a summit in The Hague.
"The intelligence says, 'We don't know, it could have been very severe.' That's what the intelligence says. So I guess that's correct, but I think we can take the 'we don't know'. It was very severe. It was obliteration," Trump added.SUCCESS OF IRAN STRIKES CRUCIAL FOR TRUMPTrump has an uneasy relationship with the US intelligence community, and the success of the strikes is politically critical to him.His right-leaning supporters had argued loudly beforehand that such military intervention was inconsistent with Trump's domestic-focused "Make America Great Again" agenda and his promise to avoid foreign entanglements.Trump has countered by insisting that Iran must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon - a line that an accurate, decisive attack would support.advertisementTrump said the US strikes were responsible for ending the war between Israel and Iran and compared them to the United States' use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, which brought an end to World War Two in 1945."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 the war," Trump said.Trump argued that Iran's nuclear deal had been set back "basically decades, because I don't think they'll ever do it again" and he turned to top advisers to reinforce that message.HEGSETH AND RUBIO REINFORCE TRUMP'S MESSAGETrump, who arrived in the Netherlands late on Tuesday for Nato's annual summit, was sitting beside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who both also cast doubt on the reliability of the DIA assessment."When you actually look at the report - by the way, it was a top secret report - it was preliminary, it was low-confidence," Hegseth said. "This is a political motive here."He said the FBI was investigating a potential leak. Rubio suggested that those responsible for sharing the report had mischaracterised it, saying: "This is the game they play."advertisementAll three men criticised media reports about the intelligence assessments.At the summit, Nato member states were set to announce their joint intention to raise defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product.While some countries have suggested they may not in fact reach that threshold, the Trump administration has pointed to the expected commitment as a significant foreign policy victory.- EndsMust Watch
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Business Standard
30 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Trump says US, Iranian officials will talk next week as ceasefire holds
Iran has not acknowledged any talks taking place next week, though US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff has said there has been direct and indirect communication between the countries AP Dubai The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran appeared to be holding on Wednesday while US President Donald Trump asserted that US and Iranian officials will talk next week, giving rise to cautious hope for longer-term peace even as Tehran insisted it will not give up its nuclear programme. Trump, who helped negotiate the ceasefire that took hold Tuesday on the 12th day of the war, told reporters at a NATO summit that he wasn't particularly interested in restarting negotiations with Iran, insisting that US strikes had destroyed its nuclear programme. Earlier in the day, an Iranian official questioned whether the United States could be trusted after its weekend attack. We may sign an agreement, I don't know, Trump said. The way I look at it, they fought, the war is done." Iran has not acknowledged any talks taking place next week, though US Mideast 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 had been scheduled for earlier this month in Oman but was cancelled when Israel attacked Iran. Earlier, Trump said the ceasefire was going very well, and added that Iran was not going to have a bomb and they're not going to enrich. Iran has insisted, however, that it will not give up its nuclear programme. In a vote underscoring the tough path ahead, its parliament agreed to fast-track a proposal that would effectively stop the country's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN watchdog that has monitored the programme for years. Ahead of the vote, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf criticised the IAEA for having refused to even pretend to condemn the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities that the US carried out on Sunday. For this reason, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran will suspend cooperation with the IAEA until security of nuclear facilities is ensured, and Iran's peaceful nuclear programme will move forward at a faster pace," Qalibaf told lawmakers. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said he had written to Iran to discuss resuming inspections of their nuclear facilities. Among other things, Iran claims to have moved its highly enriched uranium ahead of the US strikes, and Grossi said his inspectors need to re-assess the country's stockpiles. We need to return, he said. We need to engage. French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country was part of the 2015 deal with Iran that restricted its nuclear programme but began unravelling after Trump pulled the US out in his first term, said he hoped Tehran would come back to the table. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear programme was peaceful, and US intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb. However, Israeli leaders have argued that Iran could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon. Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons, which it has never acknowledged. Questions over effectiveness of the US strikes The Israel Atomic Energy Commission said its assessment was that the US and Israeli strikes have set back Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years. It did not give evidence to back up its claim. The US strikes hit three Iranian nuclear sites, which Trump said completely and fully obliterated the country's nuclear programme. When asked about a US intelligence report that found Iran's nuclear programme has been set back only a few months, Trump scoffed and said it would at least take years to rebuild. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, confirmed that the strikes by US B-2 bombers using bunker-buster bombs had caused significant damage. Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that's for sure, he told Al Jazeera on Wednesday, while refusing to go into detail. He seemed to suggest Iran might not shut out IAEA inspectors for good, noting that the bill before parliament only talks of suspending work with the agency, not ending it. He also insisted Iran has the right to pursue a nuclear energy programme. Iran is determined to preserve that right under any circumstances, he said. Witkoff said on Fox News late on Tuesday that Israel and the US had achieved their objective of the total destruction of the enrichment capacity in Iran, and Iran's prerequisite for talks that Israel end its campaign had been fulfilled. The proof is in the pudding, he said. No one's shooting at each other. It's over. Grossi said he could not speculate on how bad the damage was but that Iran's nuclear capabilities were well known. The technical knowledge is there, and the industrial capacity is there, he said. That no one can deny, so we need to work together with them. Hopes for a long-term peace agreement An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the ceasefire agreement with Iran amounted to quiet for quiet, with no further understandings about Iran's nuclear programme going ahead. Witkoff told Fox News that Trump is now looking to land a comprehensive peace agreement that goes beyond even the ceasefire. We're already talking to each other, not just directly, but also through interlocutors, Witkoff said, adding that the conversations were promising and we're hopeful that we can have a long-term peace agreement. However, Baghaei, the Iranian spokesman, said Washington had torpedoed diplomacy with its attacks on nuclear sites, and that while Iran in principle was always open to talks, national security was the priority. We have to make sure whether the other parties are really serious when they're talking about diplomacy, or is it again part of their tactics to make more problems for the region and for my country, he said. China and Russia, Iran's strongest allies, welcomed the ceasefire and said they hoped it would hold. Grossi said Iran and the international community should seize the opportunity of the ceasefire for a long-term diplomatic solution. Out of the ... bad things that military conflict brings, there's also now a possibility, an opening, he said. We shouldn't miss that opportunity. A rare video by Mossad In a rare video released by Mossad, Israel's spy agency, 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 said in a Facebook post alongside the video. During the war, Israeli airstrikes also targeted Iran's top military leadership and other sites associated with its ruling theocracy. Tehran on Tuesday put the death toll in Iran at 606, with 5,332 people wounded. The Washington-based Human Rights Activists group released figures Wednesday suggesting Israeli strikes on Iran had killed at least 1,054 and wounded 4,476. The group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from multiple rounds of unrest in Iran, said 417 of those killed were civilians and 318 were security forces. At least 28 people were killed in Israel and more than 1,000 wounded, according to officials. In the past two weeks, Iran has executed six prisoners accused of spying for Israel, including three on Wednesday. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India.com
34 minutes ago
- India.com
Trump in tension over US role in Iran-Israel war, good news for India due to..., Pakistan in trouble because...
Pak PM Sharif, US President Trump and PM Modi- File image New Delhi: In the last few months, the world has seen massive military actions across the world including India's Operation Sindoor against the terror locations of Pakistan, Ukraine attacking critical locations of Russia using its drones, Israel and US attacking the nuclear facilities of Iran and finally Iran's counter-attack on Israel and military bases of the US. After all these global happenings, what are the points that these countries and their leaders should have learned and how does the global dynamics stand. This article talks about all the implications that can be drawn from the recent conflicts, with a special focus on India, China and the US. How Operation Sindoor brought Good news for India Talking about India first, its Operation Sindoor against the terror locations in Pakistan along with its diplomatic stance on the Russia-Ukraine war and the Iran-Israel war significantly boosted its global standing, with the focus shifting from nuclear threats to economic and technological power. During the course of conflicts, while US President Donald Trump expressed concern over USA's role, India firmly maintained its independent stance, enhancing its diplomatic and strategic reputation in the world of diplomacy. Getting to China, although Russia has been trying to sort out the differences between India and China, readers should note that China remains India's main long-term concern as the border tensions remain unresolved and China's military support to Pakistan continues. Last but not the least, Pakistan has been clearly unsettled by India's growing military capabilities and its recent Operation Sindoor. Despite Trump's lunch for military chief, Pakistan stands firmly with China Pakistan stood firmly alongside China and Russia against the United States at the Security Council despite Pakistan's military chief Asim Munir's hyped lunch with US President Donald Trump and the flurry of speculation about Islamabad and Washington getting closer. Pakistan's Permanent Representative Asim Iftikhar Ahmad on Sunday told the Council at its emergency meeting on Iran that Islamabad condemns 'the US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, which come on the heels of a series of brazen attacks by Israel'. (With inputs from agencies)
Time of India
34 minutes ago
- Time of India
From missiles to militias: Iran's internal war on dissent intensifies
Photo for representation. As tensions with Israel escalated, Iranian authorities are shifting focus from external conflict to an aggressive internal crackdown, marked by mass arrests, executions, and sweeping military deployments—particularly in the restive Kurdish regions. Within days of Israel's airstrikes on June 13, Iranian security forces launched a broad campaign of arrests and established a heavy street presence with expanded checkpoints, activists and officials told Reuters. While some in Israel and among exiled opposition groups had hoped the attacks would trigger a popular uprising against the Islamic Republic, there has been no large-scale unrest—only widespread anger quietly brewing among Iranians. A senior Iranian security official confirmed that internal security has become the top priority, especially in ethnic minority regions. Revolutionary Guard and Basij paramilitary units have been placed on high alert in response to concerns over Israeli agents, ethnic separatist groups, and the exiled People's Mujahideen Organisation, which has staged attacks inside Iran before. Activists say the regime is using the conflict as cover to suppress dissent. 'We're extremely cautious right now,' said a rights activist in Tehran who was jailed during the 2022 protests. 'There's a real fear the regime is using this moment as a pretext.' According to Iranian human rights group HRNA, at least 705 people have been arrested on political or security charges since the war began. Many face accusations of spying for Israel. Three Kurdish men were executed on Tuesday in Urmia, near the Turkish border, Iranian state media reported—actions condemned by Kurdish rights group Hengaw. Security officials confirmed deployments to the borders with Pakistan, Iraq, and Azerbaijan to prevent infiltration by what the regime calls "terrorists." Iranian Kurdish separatist groups in Iraqi Kurdistan reported arrests of their activists and increased military activity across the Kurdish provinces. Ribaz Khalili of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) said Revolutionary Guard units had taken over schools, conducted door-to-door raids, and locked down infrastructure in key cities like Kermanshah and Sanandaj. The Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) reported over 500 opposition members detained since the start of the Israeli strikes. Multiple Kurdish sources described a climate of fear, with checkpoints enforcing invasive searches of individuals, phones, and documents across the region.
