Iran-Israel ceasefire holding, Trump envoy says talks with Iran ‘promising’
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Trump says ‘great progress’ made on Gaza ceasefire talks – DW – 06
US President Donald Trump has said Iran is “not going to be building bombs for a long time” He described the US attacks as causing “total obliteration” and setting Iran’s nuclear ambitions by “decades”
US President Donald Trump has said Iran is “not going to be building bombs for a long time” following the recent strikes on its nuclear facilities.
He described the US attacks as causing “total obliteration” and setting Iran’s nuclear ambitions by “decades.”
This comes despite a CNN report on an initial intelligence evaluation that suggested the strikes had failed to destroy Iran’s underground nuclear facilities and did not fully eliminate Iran’s centrifuges or the country’s stockpile of enriched uranium.
Trump labeled the reports “fake news,” while also saying there is “great progress” on the negotiations to end the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.
According to Trump, the strikes on Iran would help with the release of the 50 Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.
Israel-Iran conflict LIVE: Trump dismisses reports saying U.S. strikes did not destroy Iran nuclear program; claims sites were ‘completely destroyed’
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday (June 25, 2025) that the damage to Iranian nuclear sites from missile strikes over the weekend was severe. He also acknowledged that the available intelligence on the matter was inconclusive.
Nuclear spectre: The Hindu editorial on the risk of an era of nuclear brinkmanship
Mr. Trump on Tuesday said that a ceasefire between Israel and Iran was “in effect”, after the truce, which he announced early morning, seemed unravelling following accusations of violations from both sides, prompting Mr. Trump to curse them and issue a rare public demand to Israel to stand down.
Also read: Iran’s parliament takes up Bill to end ties with International Atomic Energy Agency
The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran appeared to be holding on Wednesday after a rocky start, giving rise to cautious hope it could lead to a longer-term peace agreement, even as Tehran insisted it would not give up its nuclear programme.
Fragile Iran-Israel ceasefire holding; Trump envoy says peace talks with Iran ‘promising’
Ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump between Iran and Israel appeared to be holding on June 25. Both countries signalled that their air war had ended – at least for now. Each side claimed victory on June 24 after 12 days of war, which the US joined with air strikes in support of Israel to take out Iran’s uranium-enrichment facilities. But there was uncertainty over the extent to which Iran’s nuclear programme had in fact been damaged. Iran’s Parliament approved a Bill to suspend cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), state-affiliated news outlet Nournews reported. Such a move would require approval of the top security body, according to official news agency Irna. The White House said the intelligence assessment was “flat out wrong” and that talks between the United States and Iran were “promising’ and that Washington was hopeful for a long-term peace deal. Iran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons.
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– The ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump between Iran and Israel appeared to be holding on June 25, a day after both countries signalled that their air war had ended – at least for now.
Each side claimed victory on June 24 after 12 days of war, which the US joined with air strikes in support of Israel to take out Iran’s uranium-enrichment facilities.
Mr Trump’s Middle East envoy, Mr Steve Witkoff, said late on June 24 that talks between the United States and Iran were “promising” and that Washington was hopeful for a long-term peace deal.
“We are already talking to each other, not just directly, but also through interlocutors,” Mr Witkoff said in an interview on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle talk show. “We are hopeful that we can have a long-term peace agreement that resurrects Iran.”
Israel’s bombing campaign, launched with a surprise attack on June 13, wiped out the top echelon of Iran’s military leadership, killed its leading nuclear scientists and targeted nuclear sites and missiles. Iran responded with missiles that pierced Israel’s defences in large numbers for the first time.
Iranian authorities said 610 people were killed and nearly 5,000 injured in Iran, where the extent of the damage could not be independently confirmed because of tight restrictions on media. Twenty-eight people were killed in Israel.
The US joined two days before the end of the war by dropping huge bunker-busting bombs on nuclear sites, including the most sensitive site buried under a mountain.
Mr Trump said it had “obliterated” Iran’s programme, making it impossible for Iran to make an atomic bomb, effectively sweeping the main issue of contention at talks off the table. Iran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons.
But there was uncertainty over the extent to which Iran’s nuclear programme had in fact been damaged.
An initial report by the US government’s Defence Intelligence Agency suggested the damage may have been less severe than Mr Trump suggested, according to three people familiar with the matter.
One of the sources said Iran’s enriched uranium stocks had not been eliminated, and its nuclear programme may have been set back only a month or two.
The White House said the intelligence assessment was “flat out wrong”.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Politico: “The bottom line is, they are much further away from a nuclear weapon today than they were before the President took this bold action.”
Iran’s Parliament approved a Bill on June 25 to suspend cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), state-affiliated news outlet Nournews reported, adding that such a move would require approval of the top security body.
Cooperating with the IAEA is a requirement under the non-proliferation treaty that gives Iran access to nuclear technology as long as it refrains from pursuing a weapon.
Trump basking at summit
Still, presiding over the war’s swift end after setting back Iran’s nuclear programme – a concern for the West for decades – provides an opportunity for Mr Trump to bask in apparent success in front of other Western leaders at a Nato summit in The Hague.
Hours after Mr Trump announced the ceasefire, he claimed credit for preserving it, by ordering Israel to halt further attacks with its planes already in flight.
He used an obscenity on live television to say that the enemies had been fighting so long they did not know what they were doing.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war had removed the nuclear threat against Israel, and he was determined to thwart any attempt by Tehran to revive its weapons programme.
“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.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country had successfully ended the war in what he called a “great victory”.
Mr Pezeshkian also told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that Tehran was ready to resolve differences with the US, according to official news agency Irna.
Emergency personnel working amid debris at an impacted residential site, following a missile attack from Iran on Israel, in Be’er Sheva, Israel, on June 24. PHOTO: REUTERS
During the war, both Mr Netanyahu and Mr Trump publicly suggested that it could end with the toppling of Iran’s entire system of clerical rule if its leaders did not yield.
Israel struck sites identified with Iranian internal repression, including Evin prison in Tehran which houses political prisoners.
But after the ceasefire, Mr Trump said he did not want to see “regime change” in Iran, which he said would bring chaos at a time when he wanted the situation to settle down.
The war has hastened steps within Iran to choose a successor to 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, with Mr Hassan Khomeini, a prominent reformist grandson of the father of the revolution, emerging as one of the front runners, according to five sources, a choice seen as conciliatory at home and abroad.
Iran’s authorities moved swiftly to demonstrate their control after a war which had revealed that Israel had deep intelligence about the location of Iran’s leaders, and apparently had agents operating across the country.
Iran executed three men on June 25 , convicted of collaborating with Israel’s Mossad spy agency and smuggling equipment used in an assassination, the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.
Iran had arrested 700 people accused of ties with Israel during the 12-day conflict, the state-affiliated Nournews reported on J une 25. REUTERS
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