
Trump says US to hold nuclear talks with Iran next week amid Israel-Iran ceasefire
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he doesn't think a nuclear deal with Iran is necessary, though he would like to seek a commitment from Iran that it would end its nuclear ambitions at US-Iran talks scheduled to take place next.
While crediting US strikes on Tehran's nuclear sites as the reason for bringing a swift end to the conflict between Israel and Iran, Trump said his decision to use bunker busting bombs via B-2 Spirit stealth bombers 'completely destroyed and obliterated' Iran's nuclear program and called the outcome 'victory for everybody'.
'It was very severe, it was obliteration,' Trump said while rejecting a report prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the intelligence arm of the Pentagon which stated that American strikes on Tehran's nuclear sites on June 20 did not damage the core components of Iran's nuclear programme but has only set it back by months.
The world is far safer after President Donald J. Trump's highly successful, decisive precision strikes against the Iranian regime's key nuclear facilities. 🔥
Take it from those who actually know. ⤵️ https://t.co/tFfZuoSbHz
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 25, 2025
Speaking at the NATO Summit in The Hague, Trump said he doesn't see Iran engaging in nuclear weapons development again after the 12-day Israel-Iran conflict and US strikes on three key nuclear sites in Tehran. Though the Islamic Republic has long denied Western accusations that it is seeking nuclear arms, rather has stated that its nuclear program is a peaceful process.
Meanwhile, Iranian and Israeli people resorted to resume their normal life after the 12-day conflict which is dubbed as the most severe and intense confrontation between the two foes, until a ceasefire took place on Tuesday which was mediated by President Trump and Qatar.
'We're going to talk to them next week, with Iran. We may sign an agreement. I don't know. To me, I don't think it's that necessary,' Trump said.
The US president added that Iran would want to recover from the recently concluded conflict and would not enrich anything for now, referring to Western accusations that Iran has been enriching uranium to a purity level where it can manufacture nuclear weapons.
Later, the US Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement that the American air strikes had 'severely damaged' Iran's nuclear program.
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Scroll.in
12 minutes ago
- Scroll.in
Trump says US, Iran will hold talks next week
Amid a ceasefire between Israel and Iran that appeared to be holding, United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that Washington and Tehran will hold talks next week, the Associated Press reported. Tel Aviv and Tehran on Tuesday agreed to a ceasefire after 12 days of hostilities that saw Israel attack Iran and face Iranian retaliation. On the same day, Iran said that it was ready to return to negotiations about its nuclear programme with the US. The US had signed a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 to limit Tehran's nuclear programme in return for the lifting of economic sanctions. Trump had scrapped the deal during his first term in 2018. The talks that started in April were aimed at reaching a fresh deal. On Wednesday, Trump told reporters at a summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that he was not interested in restarting negotiations with Iran, AP reported. However, he said that he would likely seek a commitment from Iran to end its nuclear weapons ambitions, according to Reuters. 'We may sign an agreement. I don't know,' the US president said. 'The way I look at it, they fought. The war is done.' Iran has not yet acknowledged any talks taking place next week. The country has long maintained that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes. Trump also insisted that the US had destroyed Tehran's nuclear programme in the strikes on Sunday when Washington had joined Israel's war against Iran. Trump had said at the time that the country carried out a 'very successful attack' on Iranian nuclear sites in Fordo, Natanz and Esfahan. He had claimed that Iran's nuclear facilities had been 'completely obliterated' in the attacks. Washington is an ally of Israel and acts as a guarantor of the country's security. However, a preliminary intelligence assessment from Washington said that the US airstrikes on the facilities in Iran did not destroy the nuclear programme and only set it back by a few months. Refuting the assessment, Trump on Wednesday said that his decision to launch the strikes had devastated Iran's nuclear programme and called the outcome 'a victory for everybody', Reuters reported. 'It was very severe. It was obliteration,' he said. On June 13, the Israeli military struck what it claimed were nuclear targets, and also other sites, in Iran with the aim of stalling Tehran's nuclear programme. Iran retaliated with missile attacks on Israel. Israel has claimed that Iran was 'closer than ever' to obtaining a nuclear weapon. After 12 days of hostilities, Israel and Iran on Tuesday agreed to a proposal by the US for a ceasefire. Trump had made the initial announcement about the truce hours after Iran struck the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which houses US troops.


Mint
28 minutes ago
- Mint
Gaming the air raids in Kyiv: A night in a capital at war
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During my meal, my phone lies unlocked so I can keep a wary eye on drone status notifications appearing on my screen at shorter and shorter intervals. Sirens start to wail across the city at 9:06 p.m. as I take a walk after dinner, indicating the first few drones have entered Kyiv's airspace. Kyivans carry on unperturbed. I head home to get some sleep before the assault's crescendo. At my apartment, I begin my nightly checks. The bathtub, a safe place away from the windows and behind an interior wall, is padded with a blanket and pillows—a touch of comfort after I fell asleep there once and woke with a sore neck. I put my electronic devices on to charge and check my go-bag: water, granola bars, a medical kit with two tourniquets, a flashlight, a power bank and some sweaters. Warm sweatpants and socks for the musty underground shelter are folded by my bedside. The monitoring channels tell me the drones are far away enough for me to sleep before the first bombardment. I turn the volume on my phone to maximum to avoid missing an air-raid alert and set alarms for every 20 minutes to wake up and check on the status of the assault. As I doze off, at 10:17 p.m., another warning on Telegram: Russian war planes are preparing to take off in the next two hours. I go back to sleep. The next update is at 10:31 p.m.: There are up to 100 drones in Ukrainian airspace. I try to squeeze in another 20 minutes of fitful rest as I listen for the telltale buzz, which earned the drones the nickname 'mopeds" among Ukrainians. Just after midnight, I hear one. The buzzing grows closer. I lurch toward the bathtub and strain to hear the sound of the drone speeding up, a sign it is plunging toward its target. But the hum remains constant. It is flying past. I check my phone. More are on their way. It is time to go to the air-raid shelter. The usual crowd stands at the entrance, a covered stairway near the side of a building. They are smoking, chatting and checking their phones, ready to scurry back down at the first sound of trouble. 'They are already buzzing, huh?" one woman sitting in her usual spot by the entryway asks. 'When we got here, it was still quiet." Many people in Ukraine use parking garages or basements for shelter, but this one was built for the task in 1978 during the Cold War. A tattered map on the wall illustrates the potential spread of radiation in case of a nuclear strike. There is wireless internet and beds fashioned from stacks of blank forms for a census that was never carried out. People arrive with their pets, including a green parrot inside a ventilated backpack and a pooch with a dyed purple tail called Lolita. The regulars greet one another warmly. A group of elderly women save a seat for an older man with an ornate mustache who reads updates from his tablet. His back hurts today. I offer him my chair. The cold underground turns into a kind of living room housing a couple of dozen people. A blond woman is already sleeping under a blanket with her spaniel beside her, the dog's graying muzzle peeking out. The boy with the parrot eats sandwiches with his friend as their parents scroll through their phones. A young man plays Candy Crush. Someone snores. The same updates ping throughout the shelter. Each corner has someone reading from their phone in hushed tones. It is past 12:30 a.m. and there are a few dozen drones in the air, and Russian warplanes carrying cruise missiles have taken off. By 2 a.m. we will know whether they have launched their munitions. Each update comes with a mental calculation of how long the bombs will take to arrive and the morbid question of what and whom they will target. 'Balistyka?" people blurt out as walls vibrate. 'Was that a ballistic missile?" Each explosion, even when it is an interception by Ukrainian air defense, shakes the shelter. Those who were asleep are alert now. Ballistic missiles can only be countered with U.S.-designed Patriots, which Ukraine has in short supply. The shock wave from one makes the body shudder. 'A strike in Solomyanka," a working-class district in Kyiv, the man with the mustache says. 'Ambulances were called," I read out loud from my phone to the neighboring women. We are left to guess the extent of the damage. It is illegal for Ukrainians to post images of strikes and air-defense systems firing, because Russia is known for hunting down air defenders and carrying out so-called double-tap attacks—striking the same place twice to kill first responders, journalists and civilians who arrive at the scene. The woman with the spaniel sits up and scans her phone. She asks nobody in particular: How many missiles can a Russian Tu-160 strategic bomber carry? 'Between six and 12," I say. 'Oh God," she responds. By 2:15 a.m., most of the shelter is awake, sharing grim updates about areas of the city that have been hit. 'O bozhe," the woman next to me whispers repeatedly, 'Oh God." Another wave of drones comes an hour later, but some people begin to head home during a period of quiet. 'Is it the end?" says a woman in a white winter jacket. She started coming to the shelter after getting caught near a ballistic strike. She was OK, but she trembles every time she hears the air-raid sirens blare. 'No, people are just tired," her friend responds. 'People have to work tomorrow," says the woman in the white jacket. 'Today," her friend corrects her. Both women stay put. By 4.30 a.m., the cold is creeping through my two sweaters and I can't keep my eyes open. The desire to sleep wins out over fear and I head home, despite the 15 attack drones still in the air. When I emerge from the shelter, it is nearly dawn. The sky is filled with the sound of birds greeting the rising sun. For an hour, I try to sleep between the machine-gun fire and explosions as Ukrainians battle against the final wave of drones and missiles. A glance at photos starting to circulate online shows the damage from the strikes. A student dormitory is hollowed out, missing windows. The midsection of a nine-story apartment building has been bombed to the ground by the ballistic missile we heard. I can also smell it. Fires blaze across the capital. The smell of smoke fills the air. Authorities advise residents to close their windows and avoid the outdoors. A collective grief descends over the city. Streets bustling the night before fall into a shellshocked whisper. Survivors post condolences online to those who didn't. People in the streets yawn, their eyes distant and tired. 'Was it loud where you were?" Kyivans ask one another by way of a greeting. The toll of those who didn't share our shelter or our luck that night is stark: 28 killed and more than 140 wounded.


News18
30 minutes ago
- News18
‘Upsetting For You…': Trump's Exchange With Ukrainian Journo Whose Husband Is Fighting In War
Donald Trump continued to ask the woman about her personal connection to the news she was reporting on. She responded that her husband was indeed a solider currently in Ukraine. US President Donald Trump shared a tender exchange with a Ukrainian journalist who told him during a press conference at the conclusion of the NATO summit that her husband is a soldier and is currently fighting on the frontlines of the war against Russia. At a press conference at the end of the NATO Summit in The Hague, BBC journalist Myroslava Petsa posed a question for the US President 'whether or not the US is ready to sell anti-air missile systems to Ukraine." 'We know that Russia has been pounding Ukraine really heavily right now," she added. Trump responds to emotional Ukrainian reporter asking about Patriot missile system aid:'We're going to see if we can make some available. They're very hard to get. We need them too… that's a very good question… I can see it's very upsetting to you." — Martin Walsh (@martinwalsh__) June 25, 2025 Trump, calling on reporters at the briefing, took notice of her enthusiasm and asked, 'Where are you from?" When she replied, 'I am from Ukraine", Trump leaned in, visibly engaged. Before addressing her question, Trump asked Petsa, 'Are you living, yourself, now in Ukraine?" 'My husband is there," she said. Noticing her emotion, Trump interjected, 'Wow. I can see you're … you know, it's amazing." 'Wow. That's rough stuff, right? That's tough," Trump said. Trump then went on to affirm that Kyiv wants to buy the weapons from the US — and pledged that 'we're going to see if we can make some available." 'They do want to have the anti-missile system — the Patriots. And we are going to see if we can make some available. They are very hard to get. We need them too. We were supplying them to Israel, and they're very effective, 100 per cent effective. Hard to believe how effective," Trump responded. Trump added that Patriots are the most requested defence equipment from Kyiv, before offering a few personal words. 'That's a very good question, and I wish you a lot of luck. Say hello to your husband. Okay? I wish you a lot of luck. I can see that it's very upsetting to you". Meanwhile, the US President met his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague. He reportedly floated the idea that increased NATO defence spending could serve as a deterrent to further Russian aggression in the region. Following the meeting, Zelenskyy, in a post on X, said a discussions were held on ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war and other important issues. In February this year, Trump clashed bitterly with Zelenskyy at the White House in their first in-person meeting. Since then, Zelenskyy has been at pains to try to mend the relationship. The pair had a brief sit-down at the Vatican in April. In recent days, Zelensky and his aides have been calling on allies to intensify pressure on Russia as it launches a record number of drones at Ukrainian cities. First Published: June 26, 2025, 12:45 IST