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France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
Trump plays deft hand with Iran-Israel ceasefire but doubts remain
Israel, Iran and Trump himself all declared victory after 12 days of conflict that culminated Saturday in the United States bombing Iran's key nuclear sites. After facing criticism -- even within his base -- for breaking his campaign promises against military intervention abroad, Trump was able to show a quick way out, and to portray himself, despite the bombing, as a peacemaker. "I don't think the Israeli government was able to sustain a long-term war, but I think the main factor here was President Trump. He did not want to see a new war in the region break out under his watch," said Will Todman, a senior fellow at the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "That is what changed the calculation for Israel and for Iran as well." Trump startled even close aides and allies by announcing the ceasefire on social media late Monday -- the middle of the night in the Middle East -- just after Iran fired missiles at a US base in Qatar, in what appeared to be a choreographed response as the rockets were easily shot down. Trump chose not to retaliate against Iran and on Tuesday, returned to his electronic bully pulpit to urge Israel to abort new attacks on Iran. Iran needed an off-ramp as it suffered its worst assault since the 1980-88 war with Iraq. Trump also appeared to offer incentives to sanctions-bound Iran by suggesting an easing of US pressure on China to stop buying Iranian oil. Israel's military, while proving itself to be the region's strongest, has been stretched by campaigns in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon, and with Iranian strikes this month, the Israeli population endured the most prolonged, deadly air attacks seen in decades. After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Trump's intervention, the president's warning Tuesday likely also showed him the limits to US support, Todman said. What was achieved? Trump hailed his intervention as a monumental success, although critics have long warned that an attack could make Iran rush, more clandestinely, to a nuclear bomb. While Trump claimed Iran's nuclear program was "obliterated," a classified report found that the US bombing did not destroy the core parts of the three nuclear sites, according to CNN and The New York Times. Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said it's too early to know if the ceasefire would hold, either. He said that Gulf Arab powers, led by well-connected Qatar, did the hard work of quiet diplomacy as they sought a return to calm in their region. "Trump vocally used his troll power to try to restrain the actions of Israel and Iran, but that matters less compared with the role that these countries continuously play," Katulis said of Gulf Arab states. Katulis, who worked on the Middle East for former president Bill Clinton, said the Trump administration's tactical military operations, combined with "a heavy dose of strategic communications" confused Americans and global actors alike "about what it is we're actually trying to get done." Showing heft at home One area where Trump's diplomacy had clear -- if short-term -- benefits was at home. A prolonged US military campaign "had the potential to really fracture President Trump's own base of support," said Jonathan Panikoff, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. But now, "my guess is the majority of his MAGA and other Republican base will stay relatively unified, even if they were unthrilled in some quarters," he said. While traditional hawks of Trump's Republican Party largely cheered the Iran strikes, they were widely but not universally denounced by rival Democrats. Annelle Sheline, who resigned from the State Department to protest policies under former president Joe Biden and is now at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said it was critical for Trump to enforce the ceasefire. She noted Israel has bombed Lebanon and Gaza during truces, saying Netanyahu believed he enjoyed "America's unconditional support." "Trump demonstrated that he can rein in Israel when he chooses to do so. Now he must do the same to insist on a ceasefire in Gaza," she said.
AFP
an hour ago
- AFP
Image of Obama bowing to Khamenei is doctored
"Sums it up," says a June 22, 2025 post sharing the image on Facebook. Image Screenshot from Facebook taken June 24, 2025 The post comes from conservative comedian Terrence Williams, whom AFP has previously fact-checked for spreading other misinformation. Similar posts spread across X after Trump said June 21 that the US military had executed a "very successful attack" on three Iranian nuclear sites, including the underground uranium enrichment facility at Fordo. The operation, dubbed "Midnight Hammer," added to a more than week-long Israeli campaign that also targeted Tehran's top military brass, fueling fears of a wide regional conflict. The US president announced a fragile ceasefire in the war between Iran and Israel June 23 after Tehran fired ballistic missiles at a US base in Qatar. The escalation came almost a decade after Obama and other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council sealed a deal with Iran called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The agreement placed significant restrictions on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. in 2018 during his first term, and his administration had been seeking to chart a new deal before Israel's June 13 strikes on Iran. The US president had long criticized his predecessor's signature foreign police achievement and campaigned in 2016 on torpedoing the deal. But the image purporting to show Obama bowing to Khamenei is a fake, with two separate photos edited together to create a composite picture that has circulated online for years. Reverse image searches revealed that the original photo of Obama is a famous shot, captured by then-official White House photographer Pete Souza, of the Democrat bending over so that the young Black son of another White House staffer could feel his head and see if they had the similar hair (archived here and here). Souza took the photo in May 2009 -- years before Obama signed the Iran nuclear accord in 2015. Image Screenshot from Flickr taken June 24, 2025 An AFP photojournalist snapped the picture of Khamenei even earlier, in August 2005, during a ceremony to inaugurate former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who served until 2013. In the real photo, Ahmadinejad is standing to Khamenei's left -- not Obama. Image Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei (C) attends the presidential inaugural ceremony of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran August 3, 2005 (AFP / ATTA KENARE) AFP has debunked other misinformation about Iran here.
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
US intel says strikes did not destroy Iran nuclear program
US media on Tuesday cited people familiar with the Defense Intelligence Agency findings as saying the weekend strikes did not fully eliminate Iran's centrifuges or stockpile of enriched uranium. The strikes sealed off entrances to some facilities without destroying underground buildings, according to the report. White House Press Secretary Karline Leavitt confirmed the authenticity of the assessment but said it was "flat-out wrong and was classified as 'top secret' but was still leaked." "The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran's nuclear program," Leavitt posted on X. "Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration," she added. US B-2 bombers hit two Iranian nuclear sites with massive GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs over the weekend, while a guided missile submarine struck a third with Tomahawk cruise missiles. Trump called the strikes a "spectacular military success" and said they had "obliterated" the nuclear sites, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Washington's forces had "devastated the Iranian nuclear program." General Dan Caine, the top US military officer, has struck a more cautious tone, saying the strikes caused "extremely severe damage" to the Iranian facilities. Iran's government said Tuesday that it had "taken the necessary measures" to ensure the continuation of its nuclear program. "Plans for restarting (the facilities) have been prepared in advance, and our strategy is to ensure that production and services are not disrupted," the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, said in a statement aired on state television. An adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, meanwhile said his country still had stocks of enriched uranium and that "the game is not over." Israel launched an unprecedented air campaign targeting Iranian nuclear sites, scientists and top military brass on June 13 in a bid to set back Tehran's nuclear efforts. Trump had spent weeks pursuing a diplomatic path to replace the nuclear deal with Tehran that he tore up during his first term in 2018, but he ultimately decided to take military action. The US operation was massive, with Caine saying it involved more than 125 US aircraft including stealth bombers, fighters, aerial refueling tankers, a guided missile submarine and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft.
