Iran ‘much further away from nuclear weapon’ after strikes, Marco Rubio says
US secretary of state Marco Rubio told Politico on Wednesday that Iran is “much further away from a nuclear weapon” after a US strike on Iran’s three main nuclear sites over the weekend.
“The bottom line is, they are much further away from a nuclear weapon today than they were before the president took this bold action,” Rubio told Politico.
“Significant, very significant, substantial damage was done to a variety of different components, and were just learning more about it, he added.
Key events
Iran to hold state funerals for top scientists killed in strikes
Iran will hold on Saturday state funerals for senior military commanders and top scientists killed during the country’s 12-day war with Israel, official media said.
“The national funeral ceremony for… commanders and scientists martyred in the Zionist regime’s aggression will be held on Saturday from 8:00 am (0430 GMT)“ in Tehran, state news agency IRNA reported on Wednesday, a day after a ceasefire took hold.
IRNA also reported that Hossein Salami, the Revolutionary Guards chief killed by Israel on the war’s first day, will be laid to rest on Thursday in central Iran.
Israel on June 13 launched a major bombardment campaign targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites and killing top officials including Salami, who was close to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Nuclear weapons are front of mind for many people after the US struck a number of Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons sites.
But how many countries have nuclear weapons? Which countries are capable of building nuclear weapons? What is the non-proliferation treaty? And why are some countries allowed to have nuclear weapons and not others?
Guardian Australia’s Matilda Boseley explains:
It was as close as Donald Trump might get to a lucid statement of his governing doctrine. “I may do it. I may not do it,” the president said to reporters on the White House lawn. “Nobody knows what I’m going to do.”
The question was about joining Israeli air strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Days later, US bombers were on their way. Some expected it to happen. Others, including Keir Starmer, had gone on record to say they didn’t. No one had known. The unpredictability doctrine wouldn’t have been violated either way.
In the Middle East as in Ukraine, the president is discovering that simple bullying tricks don’t resolve complex international crises, Rafael Behr writes:
Oil prices edged higher on Wednesday, finding some respite after plummeting in the last two sessions, as investors assessed the stability of the ceasefire and the diminished prospect of an Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
Israel’s military lifted restrictions on activity across the country at 8 p.m. local time (1700 GMT) on Tuesday, and officials said Ben Gurion Airport, the country’s main airport near Tel Aviv, had reopened. Iran’s airspace likewise will be reopened, state-affiliated Nournews reported.
The truce appears fragile: Both Israel and Iran took hours to acknowledge they had accepted the ceasefire and accused each other of violating it.
The dollar struggled to regain lost ground on Wednesday as investors decided to take on more risk following a fragile truce between Israel and Iran.
Markets were jubilant and an index of global shares hit a record high overnight as a shaky ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump took hold between Iran and Israel.
The two nations signalled that the air war between them had ended, at least for now, after Trump publicly scolded them for violating a ceasefire he announced.
Summary
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The shaky ceasefire between Israel and Iran appeared to be holding after Donald Trump expressed deep frustration with both sides for violating the agreement he brokered. Israel earlier accused Iran of launching missiles into its airspace after the truce was supposed to take effect, while the Iranian military denied firing on Israel. Iran and Israel both said they would honour the ceasefire if the other side did the same.
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An initial classified US assessment of Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities says they did not destroy two of the sites and likely only set back the nuclear program by a few months, according to two people familiar with the report. The report – produced by the Defence Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm – concluded key components of the nuclear program, including centrifuges, were capable of being restarted within months. The preliminary report also found that much of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium was moved before the strikes. The report contradicts statements from Trump, who has said the Iranian nuclear program was “completely and fully obliterated”.
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Donald Trump blasted CNN and the New York Times, claiming they had teamed up to “demean one of the most successful military strikes in history”, and declared Iran’s nuclear sites were “completely destroyed”. Trump’s statement in a post on his Truth Social platform came after coverage of the Pentagon report on the US strikes. The White House earlier called the assessment “flat-out wrong”.
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Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would strike again if Iran rebuilt its nuclear project. Describing his war on Iran as a “historic victory” that “will stand for generations”, the Israeli prime minister claimed that Israel, in its 12 days of war with Iran, had removed “the threat of nuclear annihilation”. He also said he had “no intention of easing off the gas pedal” and Israel “must complete” its campaign against the Iranian axis, to defeat Hamas and to bring about the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
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Netanyahu also declared that Israel “never had a better friend that President Trump in the White House”. His comments came only hours after Trump directed stinging criticism at Israel over the scale of strikes Trump said violated the truce with Iran negotiated by Washington, with the US president saying: “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.” Israel’s leadership was reportedly “stunned” by Trump’s rebuke.
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Iran’s air space would reopen on Tuesday night, Iranian state news reported, while Israel Home Front Command said Israeli citizens could resume full activity without restriction for most of the country and that Ben-Gurion and Haifa airports would return to full operations.
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Donald Trump said China could continue to purchase Iranian oil, a move the White House clarified did not indicate a relaxation of US sanctions.
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At the United Nations, France and its European partners are still prepared to reactivate sanctions on Iran if an agreement is not reached soon on its nuclear program, the French ambassador to the UN has warned.
At the Nato summit in the Netherlands, tensions between Israel and Iran could dominate discussions among world leaders amid the fragile ceasefire.
Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, is among those in The Hague for the gathering, having called on Middle Eastern nations to maintain the pause in hostilities.
In a conversation with the French and German leaders at the summit on Tuesday, Starmer “reflected on the volatile situation in the Middle East”, according to a Downing Street spokeswoman. The leaders agreed that “now was the time for diplomacy and for Iran to come to the negotiating table”.
PA Media also reports that earlier on Tuesday Starmer said the US had helped in “alleviating” the threat of nuclear capability for Iran with its strikes on Saturday.
Asked on his visit to The Hague whether he personally felt safe with Donald Trump in the White House and why others should, Starmer told Channel 5 News:
Look, I think what we’ve seen over the last few days is the Americans alleviating a threat to nuclear weaponry by the Iranians and bringing about a ceasefire in the early hours of today.
I think now what needs to happen is that ceasefire needs to be maintained, and that will be the focus of our attention, our engagement, our discussions, because that ceasefire provides the space for the negotiations that need to take place.
The UK has continued to evacuate Britons out of Israel, and a second flight left Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
Iran’s UN envoy says Tehran ‘closer to diplomacy than ever’
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations has told the UN security council “we are now closer to diplomacy than ever before”.
Amir Saeid Iravani said the Islamic Republic emerged “proud and steadfast” from attacks by Israel and the United States.
This proves one simple truth more clearly than ever: diplomacy and dialogue are the only path to resolving the unnecessary crisis over Iran’s peaceful program.
His comments come soon after Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said the US and Iran were already in early discussions about resuming negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.
Witkoff said both countries were engaged in direct talks and through intermediaries about getting back to the table after the weekend US attacks on Iranian nuclear sites.
Iran executed three men on Wednesday after they were convicted of collaborating with Israeli spy agency the Mossad and smuggling equipment used in an assassination, Reuters cited the the judiciary’s Mizan news agency as reporting.
Iran has launched a wave of arrests against so-called spies and collaborators since Israel launched its attacks on the country two weeks ago. The Guardian has been unable to verify the claims from Iran.
The Israeli military says six soldiers have been killed during combat in southern Gaza, Reuters just reported.
Turning to Gaza, the Trump administration has authorised a $30m grant to the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), making the United States a direct backer of an aid organisation that is closely linked to private security contractors and has been accused by critics of “politicising” the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Palestinian territory, Andrew Roth reports.
According to a document seen by the Guardian, the state department has already disbursed $7m to GHF, a US- and Israeli-backed aid organisation that has been given preferential access to operate in Gaza because it says it can deliver millions of meals to starving people without that food falling into the hands of Hamas.
Photograph: Habboub Ramez/ABACA/Shutterstock
Roth’s report continues:
But its rollout has been chaotic, with Israeli forces killing hundreds of people near distribution centres policed by private military contractors and Israeli soldiers, resignations by senior leadership who have said the humanitarian organisation’s mission was “politicised”, and reports of close ties and collaboration with the Israeli government.
Insiders said the application for the grant was rushed through the state department unusually quickly, especially for a first-time applicant that should undergo an audit to receive USAID funding.
“It was pushed through over the technical and ethical objections of career staff,” a source told the Guardian.
You can read the full report here:
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has weighed in on Donald Trump swearing after becoming frustrated that Iran and Israel violated a ceasefire brokered by the US president.
Trump attacked both nations for breaching the agreement in the early stages, saying on live television “they don’t know what the fuck they are doing”.
Albanese said Trump’s views on the situation in the Middle East were obvious, while also calling for the ceasefire agreement to remain in effect, Australian Associated Press reports.
“President Trump made some pretty clear statements. I don’t think it needs any further reflection,” Albanese told reporters on Wednesday. “I think that he stated his views pretty abruptly and I think they were very clear.”
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said Australians shouldn’t be concerned about the words used. “Far be it from for Australians to quibble with that kind of language,” he told Sky News.
We heard some blunt speak from the president, and I think that just reflects the fact that the stakes are high in the Middle East.
I think those who haven’t used that word privately can cast the first stone.
Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy has said talks between the US and Iran are “promising” and that Washington is hopeful for a long-term peace deal.
“We are already talking to each other, not just directly but also through interlocutors,” Steve Witkoff said on Tuesday. “I think that the conversations are promising. We are hopeful that we can have a long-term peace agreement that resurrects Iran,” he told a Fox News show.
Now it’s for us to sit down with the Iranians and get to a comprehensive peace agreement, and I am very confident that we are going to achieve that.
Reuters also reports that since April, Iran and the US have held indirect talks aimed at finding a new diplomatic solution over Iran’s nuclear program. Israel is the only country in the Middle East widely believed to have nuclear weapons. Iran is a party to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty while Israel is not.
Donald Trump’s administration told the UN security council on Tuesday that its weekend strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities had “degraded” Iran’s nuclear program – short of the US president’s earlier assertion that the facilities had been “obliterated”.
The US’s acting envoy to the UN, Dorothy Shea, said in a statement to the security council that the US strikes “effectively fulfilled our narrow objective: to degrade Iran’s capacity to produce a nuclear weapon”.
Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that in its 12 days of war with Iran, Israel removed the threat of nuclear annihilation and was determined to stop any Iranian attempt to revive its program.
“We have removed two immediate existential threats to us: the threat of nuclear annihilation and the threat of annihilation by 20,000 ballistic missiles,” he said in video remarks issued by his office.
Iran has insisted its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful purposes.
Trump insists Iranian nuclear sites ‘completely destroyed’ and attacks media
Donald Trump has blasted CNN and the New York Times, claiming they have teamed up to “demean one of the most successful military strikes in history”, and has declared Iran’s nuclear sites are “completely destroyed”.
The US president also claimed in the post on his Truth Social platform that the two media organisations are “getting slammed by the public”.
Trump’s statement came after reporting of an initial classified US assessment of his strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend said they did not destroy two of the sites and likely only set back the nuclear program by a few months, according to two people familiar with the report.
The report produced by the Pentagon’s intelligence arm concluded – as earlier detailed – that key components of the nuclear program including centrifuges were capable of being restarted within months. The report also found that much of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium that could be put to use for a possible nuclear weapon was moved before the strikes and may have been moved to other secret nuclear sites maintained by Iran.
The White House said the intelligence report was “flat-out wrong”.
Here is Trump’s Truth Social post on Wednesday in full:
FAKE NEWS CNN, TOGETHER WITH THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES, HAVE TEAMED UP IN AN ATTEMPT TO DEMEAN ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MILITARY STRIKES IN HISTORY. THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED! BOTH THE TIIMES AND CNN ARE GETTING SLAMMED BY THE PUBLIC!
Opening summary
Welcome to our rolling coverage of the Israel-Iran war.
The shaky ceasefire between Israel and Iran appeared to be holding after Donald Trump expressed deep frustration with both sides for violating the agreement he brokered.
Israel earlier accused Iran of launching missiles into its airspace after the truce was supposed to take effect. The Iranian military denied firing on Israel.
But while Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Israel had brought Iran’s nuclear program “to ruin”, an initial classified US assessment of Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend says they did not destroy two of the sites and likely only set back the nuclear program by a few months, according to two people familiar with the report.
The report produced by the Defence Intelligence Agency – the Pentagon’s intelligence arm – concluded key components of the nuclear program, including centrifuges, were capable of being restarted within months. The report also found that much of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium was moved before the strikes.
The report also contradicts statements from Trump, who has said the Iranian nuclear program was “completely and fully obliterated”. The White House called the assessment “flat-out wrong”.
In other key developments:
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Iran and Israel both said they would honour the ceasefire if the other side did the same. Earlier on Tuesday Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would respect the ceasefire announced by Trump, provided that Israel also upholds its terms. “If the Zionist regime does not violate the ceasefire, Iran will not violate it either,” he said. Hours later, Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said he told his US counterpart Pete Hegseth that “Israel will respect the ceasefire – as long as the other side does”.
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Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would strike again if Iran rebuilt its nuclear project. Describing his war on Iran as a “historic victory” that “will stand for generations”, the Israeli prime minister claimed that Israel, in its 12 days of war with Iran, had removed “the threat of nuclear annihilation”. He also said he had “no intention of easing off the gas pedal” and Israel “must complete” its campaign against the Iranian axis, to defeat Hamas and to bring about the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
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Netanyahu also declared that Israel “never had a better friend that President Trump in the White House”. His comments came only hours after Trump directed stinging criticism at Israel over the scale of strikes Trump said violated the truce with Iran negotiated by Washington, with the US president saying: “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before, the biggest load that we’ve seen. 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.” Israel’s leadership was reportedly “stunned” and “embarrassed” by Trump’s rebuke.
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Iran’s air space would reopen on Tuesday night, Iranian state news reported, while Israel Home Front Command said Israeli citizens could resume full activity without restriction for most of the country and that Ben-Gurion and Haifa airports would return to full operations.
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Donald Trump said China can continue to purchase Iranian oil, a move the White House clarified did not indicate a relaxation of US sanctions.
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At the United Nations, France and its European partners are still prepared to reactivate sanctions on Iran if an agreement is not reached soon on its nuclear program, the French ambassador to the UN has warned.
