Trump-brokered truce gains ground as nuclear watchdog seeks Iran access

Business Standard

6 hours ago

By Alisa Odenheimer, Hadriana Lowenkron and Golnar Motevalli
Israel and Iran appeared to be honoring a ceasefire brokered by Donald Trump after the president lashed out at both sides for early breaches, while the UN nuclear watchdog urged a rapid resumption of inspections at Iranian atomic sites amid reports that US bombing failed to completely destroy them.
Both warring Mideast nations said they'd honor the truce provided their enemy did likewise. There have been no reported attacks since the ones in the ceasefire's early hours that enraged Trump. 'DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS,' he wrote in a social media post directed at Israel in particular.
The president's bid to end the 12-day conflict, which threatened to escalate into a wider regional war and upend energy markets, came just two days after he ordered US forces to join the Israeli attack by bombing three key nuclear facilities. Trump said they had been 'obliterated.' But satellite images don't provide conclusive evidence that the most heavily protected underground sites were breached.
The New York Times and CNN — citing US Defense Intelligence Agency findings — reported Tuesday that Iran's atomic programme had only been set back by months, with some core components intact. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt called the CNN report 'flat-out wrong.'
The prospect of de-escalation between Israel and Iran has triggered a slump in oil prices — erasing almost all of the increase since the conflict broke out. The truce remains fragile as the focus shifts back to nuclear diplomacy. A stated aim of US and Israeli strikes was to destroy Iran's ability to develop a nuclear weapon, adding urgency to assessments of how much damage was done.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi told Fox News that the country's atomic programme 'has been set back significantly,' adding that it's hard to specify whether that means months or years.
Grossi said inspections should resume 'as soon as possible' to determine what's happened to Iran's stocks of uranium enriched to 60 per cent levels, not far short of the 90 per cent required to build a bomb. The IAEA says it last verified those inventories a few days before Israel's June 13 attack, and their whereabouts is now unknown.
Early Tuesday, Trump's frustration with ceasefire breaches boiled over when he stopped to take questions from reporters before heading to a Nato summit in The Hague. 'We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they're doing,' he told them on the South Lawn of the White House, before marching toward the presidential helicopter.
The president's tone later cooled. In comments to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to the summit, Trump reiterated what he'd maintained was the US goal in nuclear talks with Iran. 'They're not going to have enrichment and they're not going to have a nuclear weapon,' he said.