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….Damage report on Iran nuclear sites still not clear- US
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accuses the United States of betraying diplomacy after it joined Israel in its air campaign against his country.
President Donald Trump claims the strikes on the key nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan were “very successful” and warns against any retaliation, saying: “Remember, there are many targets left.”
International nuclear energy watchdog says there have been no reports of increased off-site radiation levels following the US attacks on the Iranian nuclear sites.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praises Trump’s “bold decision” and says Israel and the US acted in “full coordination”.
Iran says more than 400 people have been killed and at least 3,056 others wounded since Israel launched its attack on June 13. In Israel, at least 24 people have been killed in Iranian strikes.
China says US attack ‘seriously violates’ international law
Beijing has “strongly condemned” the US attack on Iran, noting its nuclear facilities were under the safeguards of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency.
“The actions of the US seriously violate the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and international law, and have exacerbated tensions in the Middle East,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“China calls on the parties to the conflict, Israel in particular, to reach a ceasefire as soon as possible, ensure the safety of civilians, and start dialogue and negotiation.”
The US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says scope of attack ‘intentionally limited’, Iran can still ‘come to table’
The US defense secretary says he still hopes Iran will return to the negotiating table, where “they know precisely what steps they can take” to meet US demands.
“I can only confirm that there are both public and private messages being delivered to the Iranians in multiple channels, giving them every opportunity to come to the table,” he told reporters.
The US and Iran had been engaged in nuclear talks before Israel launched a surprise strike on Iran – publicly backed by the US – earlier this month.
Hegseth also stressed that the scope of the US’s attacks was “intentionally limited – that’s the message we’re sending.” However, he said that the US military’s capabilities are “nearly unlimited”.
Damage report on Iran nuclear sites still not clear:
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine says an assessment of the destruction sustained at Iran’s nuclear facilities will take time to confirm.
“I think PDA [preliminary damage assessment] is still pending and it would be way too early for me to comment on what or what my not still be there,” General Caine told reporters at the Pentagon.
He declined to comment on specific moves taken to protect US troops based in the Middle East from potential Iranian retaliation.
“Our joint force remains ready to defend the United States – our troops and our interests in the region,” said Caine.
Hegseth says US mission ‘not about regime change’
Asked whether regime change in Iran is off the table as a US policy goal, Hegseth replied: “This mission was not, is not about regime change.”
He described the attack as a “precision operation to neutralise the threats to our national interests posed by the Iranian nuclear programme”.
As we’ve been reporting, many experts have disputed the US claims that Iran’s nuclear programme posed any threat, while Iran has been insisting its programme is for civilian purposes.
US General Dan Caine, when asked whether Iran still retains some nuclear capacity after the attack, said it would be premature to comment before the damage assessment is complete.
“Initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” he had said earlier during his opening remarks.
US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the attack on Iran was “planned and executed across multiple domains” of the military.
He confirmed B-2 bombers were launched from the United States on Friday for an 18-hour flight to their targets for the “strike package”.
“Operation Midnight Hammer” included several “deception and decoy” manoeuvres. High-speed suppression fire was used to protect the B-2s, and Caine said there’s no indication “any shots were fired” by Iranian defences.
“Iran’s fighters did not fly and it appears Iran’s missile systems did not see us,” Caine told a press conference at the Pentagon.
Hegseth says US attacks took ‘months’ of planning, involved ‘misdirection’
We now have more from the US defence secretary.
“This is a plan that took months and weeks of positioning and preparation, so that we could be ready when the president of the United States called,” he told reporters.
“It took a great deal of precision. It involved misdirection and the highest [level] of operational security. Our B-2 bombers went in and out of these nuclear sites without the world knowing at all.”
US strikes ‘devastated’ Iran’s nuclear weapons programme: Hegseth
The US secretary of defence says the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites were an “incredible and overwhelming success”, without providing any details.
“The order we received from our commander-in-chief [Trump] was focused; it was powerful and it was clear. We devastated the Iranian nuclear programme,” Pete Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon.
Reporting with
