Hegseth giving Pentagon briefing after Iranian leader says they gave 'heavy slap' to US

BBC News

6 hours ago

Update:
Date: 13:07 BST
Title: Hegseth praises Trump's 'game-changing' achievements at Nato summit
Content: Pete Hegseth, US Defence Secretary, is speaking now.
He first references the Nato summit in the Netherlands, which he has just returned from.
What President Trump achieved "was game-changing and historic," he says, after Nato's 32 members committed to spend 5% of GDP on defence spending.
Update:
Date: 13:05 BST
Title: Hegseth speaking now - watch live above
Content: Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen Dan Caine are now on stage to deliver their remarks.
Stick with us as we bring you the top lines from the briefing.
Update:
Date: 12:59 BST
Title: US defence update about to begin
Content: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is about to give an update from the Pentagon on the impact of US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities at the weekend.
He'll be speaking alongside Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen Dan Caine.
Earlier, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social to say it would be a "major" update.
You can watch the briefing too by pressing Watch Live at the top of this page.
Update:
Date: 12:44 BST
Title: Ayatollah faces significant political decision on future of nuclear programme
Content: Frank GardnerSecurity correspondent
There are several elements to a potential nuclear weapons programme, and it's highly unlikely that the US, or even Israel, knows the answers to the status of all of them inside Iran right now.
First off, there is the highly enriched uranium (HEU). The UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, is concerned about the whereabouts of 408kg (900lb) of this HEU, which is close to weapons grade, ie a substantial component for up to nine nuclear bombs, should Iran decide to build them.
It is unlikely that material was destroyed in the air strikes, and more likely that Iran has spirited it away to a secret destination underground somewhere else.
Then there are the centrifuges. When used in a 'cascade', these spin at high speed to enrich the uranium. A key question is whether the centrifuges in the subterranean hall deep inside the mountain at Fordo are still intact, destroyed, or damaged by the massive explosions above them.
Unless the US has secret intelligence, either through human informants or signals intercepted, it's unlikely that either the Pentagon or the IAEA could know what state these centrifuges are in.
Twelve days of Israeli air strikes have killed some of Iran's top nuclear scientists as well as military commanders. But it is almost impossible that they would have eliminated decades of Iranian nuclear research, stored in hard drives, vaults, and in the brains of scientists.
Finally, there is the political decision to which the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has the final say in deciding what's next with its nuclear programme.
Will he return to talks, submit to US and Israel demands to give up enrichment on its territory, or will he permanently cease all co-operation, raising suspicions that he could be racing to rebuild its suspect nuclear programme?
Update:
Date: 12:37 BST
Title: Ayatollah Khamenei delivers first video message since US strikes
Content: Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivered his first video message since US strikes on his country and Iran's ceasefire with Israel.
News of the address started to trickle in through social media and Iranian state media, before his message in full was broadcast around 14:05 local time (11:35 BST).
His comments come two days after a ceasefire ended a 12-day war between Iran and Israel. Israeli strikes on Iran killed at least 627 civilians, according to Tehran's health ministry.
Iran's attacks on Israel killed 28 people, as reported by AFP news agency.
Update:
Date: 12:23 BST
Title: Khamenei says US failed to achieve anything significant - Trump says otherwise
Content: As we've just reported, Iran's supreme leader downplayed the impact of the US strike on three of Iran's nuclear sites, suggesting they had "failed to achieve anything significant".
This directly contradicts Donald Trump's claims that the US had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear programme with its operation - which involved 125 US military aircraft and targeted the sites of Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.
Speaking at the Nato summit in the Netherlands yesterday, Trump rejected a Pentagon intelligence report that suggested the US had only set back Iran's programme "by a few months".
Instead, Trump insisted that the nuclear sites in Iran were "completely destroyed" and accused the media of "an attempt to demean one of the most successful military strikes in history".
Standing alongside Trump at the Nato podium, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also dismissed the report, and argued that the evidence of what had been bombed "is buried under a mountain, devastated and obliterated".
And this was followed-up by CIA director John Ratcliffe, who later said there was "credible intelligence" Iran's nuclear programme had been "severely damaged".
Update:
Date: 11:59 BST
Title: US strikes were never about nuclear, but about Iran surrender - Khamenei
Content: Ghoncheh HabibiazadBBC Persian
Iran's supreme leader says the US military action was never about nuclear issues or nuclear enrichment - but about "surrender".
One day it's about human rights, another day it's about women's rights, then it's about the nuclear issue, then about the missiles, he says.
But he adds that actually in its core, it has always been about one thing: they want Iran to surrender.
Update:
Date: 11:55 BST
Title: 'The word surrender is not in our vocabulary'
Content: Ghoncheh HabibiazadBBC Persian, World Service reporter
Ayatollah Khamenei continues, saying that the Iranian people demonstrated their unity - sending a message that "our people are one voice".
He says Trump called on Iran to "surrender", but his comments were 'too big for the mouth of the president of the United States'.
"For a great country and nation like Iran, the very mention of surrender is an insult," Khamenei adds.
He adds that Donald Trump accidentally revealed a truth -
that the Americans have been opposing the Islamic Republic of Iran from the
very beginning.
Update:
Date: 11:50 BST
Title: US failed to achieve anything significant and exaggerated it - Khamenei
Content: Ghoncheh HabibiazadBBC Persian
In his statement, Ayatollah Khamenei says the US "failed to achieve anything significant" by attacking Iran's nuclear facilities.
He says US President Donald Trump had made an 'unusually exaggerated' account of what had taken place.
It was clear he needed to do it, says Khamenei - adding that anyone listening could tell the US were overstating things to distort the truth.
We attacked one of the US's key bases in the region, and here, they tried to downplay it, he says.
Update:
Date: 11:39 BST
Title: Khamenei starts speaking
Content: Khamenei's speech has just begun - we'll bring you lines on what he's saying very shortly.
Update:
Date: 11:36 BST
Title: Khamenei praises unity of Iranian people
Content: Ghoncheh HabibiazadBBC Persian
Ayatollah Khamenei has just posted another message, this time reported by the semi-official Fars News Agency on Telegram.
"A third congratulation, congratulations on the unity of the Iranian nation," he writes.
"A nation of around 90 million stood united, with one voice, shoulder to shoulder, in support of the armed forces.
"The Iranian nation demonstrated its distinguished character and showed that, when necessary, a single voice will be heard from this nation."
Update:
Date: 11:28 BST
Title: Iran delivered a 'hard slap to America's face'
Content: We can now bring you more from Ayatollah Khamenei, who in a post on X says congratulations once more to his country, focusing this time on "our beloved Iran's victory over the American regime".
He says the US "entered a direct war because it felt that if it did not, the Zionist regime would be completely destroyed".
Khamenei goes on to suggest the US "gained no achievements from this war," adding that Iran was able to emerge "victorious" and "delivered a hard slap to America's face".
Update:
Date: 11:19 BST
Title: Khamenei not been seen for more than a week
Content: Khamenei was last seen by the public on 18 June when he gave a televised statement
Iran's supreme leader has not been seen for over a week - he last gave a televised statement from an undisclosed location on 18 June.
Earlier today, Israeli media was heavily questioning the whereabouts of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
BBC Monitoring - which looks at media reports - said Israeli media have been keen to highlight prospects of regime change inside Iran and hopes that Israeli strikes on Iran could spark protests against the leadership from within Iran.
On Channel 14 News, commentators claimed Khamenei's days as leader are numbered, adding that he's in a state of "mental anguish".
Update:
Date: 11:11 BST
Title: What has the US bombed and what weapons were used?
Content: While we wait for Ayatollah Khamenei's video address to be broadcast, let's have a look at what we know about the impact of the US strikes on Iran.
Washington says the strikes have significantly set back the
prospects of Iran building nuclear weapons after three of Tehran's main nuclear
facilities were hit.
The operation – nicknamed Midnight Hammer - involved 125 US military aircraft and involved
the sites of Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.
They were hit between 22:40 GMT and 23:05 GMT on Saturday
(02:40-03:05 on Sunday Tehran time), the US says.
Fourteen GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs) were
dropped on the Fordo site, a nuclear enrichment facility buried deep below a
mountain outside Tehran, which is vital to Iran's nuclear ambitions.
At the same time, two dozen cruise missiles were launched at
the Isfahan site from a submarine – in total, 75 'precision-guided weapons' were
used during the operation.
Update:
Date: 11:02 BST
Title: Ayatollah says Iran secured 'victory' over Israel
Content: As we wait to bring you the top lines from Khamenei's speech, the ayatollah has just posted on X to congratulate the Iranian people for the "victory" over Israel.
"I offer my congratulations on the victory over the fallacious Zionist regime," he writes.
Update:
Date: 11:01 BST
Title: Iran's Ayatollah speaks for first time since ceasefire as Hegseth prepares 'major' update
Content: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, will speak within the next few minutes in a video message, marking his first message since the US announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel.
The message comes hours before US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is due to hold a news conference, where he'll give an update on the impact of US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities over the weekend.
US President Donald Trump, writing on Truth Social, says the "major" update will be delivered from the Pentagon at 08:00 EST (13:00 BST), when Hegseth will be joined by military representatives.
"The News Conference will prove both interesting and
irrefutable," Trump adds.
Speaking from a Nato summit yesterday, Hegseth was emphatic that US strikes had significantly diminished Tehran's nuclear capabilities.
But earlier reports quoting US intelligence sources suggested the strikes had only set Iran's nuclear programme back by months and key components had not been destroyed.
Stick with us as we bring you the latest updates on this story.