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Recent Appearances... Rantburg

Syria-Lebanon-Iran
UN nuclear watchdog pulls its inspectors out of Iran after Tehran suspends cooperation
2025-07-05
[IsraelTimes] Iranian foreign minister says Tehran remains committed to nuclear non-proliferation treaty; UN nuclear watchdog chief says inspection regime must not be interrupted

The UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday it had pulled its last remaining inspectors from Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
as a standoff deepens over their return to the country’s nuclear facilities bombed by the United States and Israel.

Israel launched its first military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in a 12-day war with the Islamic Theocratic Republic three weeks ago. The International Atomic Energy Agency'>ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors have not been able to inspect Iran’s facilities since then, even though IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said that that is his top priority.

Iran’s parliament has now passed a law to suspend cooperation with the IAEA until the safety of its nuclear facilities can be guaranteed. While the IAEA says Iran has not yet formally informed it of any suspension, it is unclear when the agency’s inspectors will be able to return to Iran.

"An IAEA team of inspectors today safely departed from Iran to return to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent military conflict," the IAEA said on X.

Diplomats said the number of IAEA inspectors in Iran was reduced to a handful after the June 13 start of the war. Some have also expressed concern about the inspectors’ safety since the end of the conflict, given fierce criticism of the agency by Iranian officials and Iranian media.

Iran has accused the agency of effectively paving the way for the bombings by issuing a damning report on May 31 that led to a resolution by the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said he stands by the report. He has denied that it provided diplomatic cover for military action.

IAEA WANTS TALKS
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday that Iran remained committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"(Grossi) reiterated the crucial importance of the IAEA discussing with Iran modalities for resuming its indispensable monitoring and verification activities in Iran as soon as possible," the IAEA said.

The US and Israeli military strikes either destroyed or badly damaged Iran’s three uranium enrichment sites. But it was less clear what happened to much of Iran’s nine tons of enriched uranium, especially the more than 400 kilograms enriched to up to 60 percent purity, a short step from weapons grade.

That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful, but there is no civil justification for enriching to such a high level, and the IAEA says no country has done so without developing an atom bomb.

As a party to the NPT, Iran must account for its enriched uranium, which is normally closely monitored by the IAEA, the body that enforces the NPT and verifies countries’ declarations. But the bombing of Iran’s facilities has now muddied the waters.

"We cannot afford that .... the inspection regime is interrupted," Grossi told a presser in Vienna last week.
Link


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Ukraine nuclear power plant alert as ALL external electricity cables helping keep reactor fuel cool go DOWN
2025-07-05
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] All external power lines supplying electricity to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP ) in Ukraine were down on Friday, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said.

Ukraine has blamed Russian shelling for severing the last power line at the plant, which is not operating but still requires electricity to keep its nuclear fuel cool and radiation levels safe.

The power plant, Europe's biggest, has switched to running on diesel generators, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

The IAEA has repeatedly warned of the risk of a catastrophic accident at Zaporizhzhia, which is located near the front line in the war in Ukraine.

Its six reactors are shut down, but the nuclear fuel inside them still needs to be cooled, which requires constant power.

'Ukraine's ZNPP lost all off-site power at 17:36 today, 9th time during military conflict and first since late 2023,' the IAEA said on X.

'The ZNPP currently relies on power from its emergency diesel generators, underlining (the) extremely precarious nuclear safety situation.'

Ukraine's energy minister, German Galuschenko, wrote on Telegram that a Russian strike had cut the plant off.
Related:
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant: 2023-07-22 ZNPP staff refusing to start up reactor No. 4 - Energoatom
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant: 2022-08-29 Mayor: Town hosting Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant shelled
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant: 2022-03-04 Let's shell the biggest Nuclear Reactor on the Planet. I am Putin. I am invincible!
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Trump: I’m not talking to Iran, nor offering it anything after US struck nuke sites
2025-07-01
[IsraelTimes] Tehran criticizes US president for sanctions ‘games,’ says its usual IAEA cooperation cannot be expected; France, Germany, UK condemn Iran’s ‘threats’ against watchdog head

US President Donald Trump said Monday he is not holding discussions with Iranian leaders and not offering them anything, as European nations condemned “threats” against the head of the UN nuclear watchdog.

In a middle-of-the-night post on Truth Social, Trump said, “I am not offering Iran ANYTHING, unlike Obama, who paid them $Billions under the stupid ‘road to a nuclear weapon JCPOA (which would now be expired!), nor am I even talking to them since we totally OBLITERATED their Nuclear Facilities.”

The social media post was a response to comments by Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, who told Fox News on Sunday that reports suggested Trump “is now moving toward negotiation and offering Iran a deal that looks somewhat similar to the Iran deal that was offered by Obama. Tens of billions of dollars of incentives and reduced sanctions in exchange for abandoning their nuclear program.”

On Friday, the US president dismissed media reports that said his administration had discussed possibly helping Iran access as much as $30 billion to build a civilian energy-producing nuclear program.

Iran on Monday criticized Trump’s apparently shifting stance on whether to lift economic sanctions against it as “games” that were not aimed at solving the problems between the two countries.

“These [statements by Trump] should be viewed more in the context of psychological and media games than as a serious expression in favor of dialogue or problem-solving,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told a press conference.

Meanwhile, France, Germany and Britain on Monday condemned “threats” against the head of the UN nuclear watchdog after Iran rejected its request to visit nuclear facilities bombed by Israel and the United States.

Tehran has accused Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, of “betrayal of his duties” for not condemning the Israeli and US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, and Iranian lawmakers this week voted to suspend cooperation with the agency.

“France, Germany and the United Kingdom condemn threats against the director general of the IAEA Rafael Grossi and reiterate our full support to the agency,” foreign ministers Jean-Noel Barrot, Johann Wadephul and David Lammy said in a joint statement.

“We call on Iranian authorities to refrain from any steps to cease cooperation with the IAEA,” they added.

“We urge Iran to immediately resume full cooperation in line with its legally binding obligations, and to take all necessary steps to ensure the safety and security of IAEA personnel.”

Argentina, Grossi’s home country, has also slammed “threats” against him from Iran.

None specified which threats they were referring to, but Iran’s ultra-conservative Kayhan newspaper recently claimed documents showed Grossi was an Israeli spy and should be executed.

On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X that Grossi’s insistence on visiting the bombed sites was “meaningless and possibly even malign in intent.”

Iran has said it believes an IAEA resolution on June 12 that accused Iran of ignoring its nuclear obligations served as an “excuse” for the war that Israel launched on June 13 and that ended with a ceasefire last week.

Speaking to US broadcaster CBS on Sunday, Iranian ambassador to the United Nations Amir Saeid Iravani denied there was any threat to nuclear inspectors in Iran, insisting they were “in safe conditions” but their work was suspended.

However, Baghaei said Monday that Iran cannot be expected to ensure usual cooperation with the IAEA when the security of agency inspectors cannot be guaranteed after the nuclear sites were hit by Israel and the US.

Baghaei said a parliamentary bill approved by the Guardian Council makes it mandatory for the government to suspend cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.

“Iran shouldn’t be expected to accept its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) when the UN nuclear watchdog has stopped short of condemning the attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites,” he said.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
CIA chief says strike on metal conversion site set Iran nuclear program back by years
2025-07-01
[IsraelTimes] Isfahan site damage assessment shared with US lawmakers appears to mesh with that of Israeli officials; Iranian envoy to the UN vows the Islamic Republic ‘will never stop’ enriching uranium

CIA Director John Ratcliffe told skeptical US politicians that American military strikes destroyed Iran’s lone metal conversion facility and in the process delivered a monumental setback to Tehran’s nuclear program that would take years to overcome, a US official said Sunday.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive intelligence, said Ratcliffe laid out the importance of the strikes on the metal conversion facility during a classified hearing for US politicians last week.

The metal conversion facility that Ratcliffe said was destroyed was located at the Isfahan nuclear facility. The process of transforming enriched uranium gas into dense metal, or metallization, is a key step in building the explosive core of a bomb.

Details about the private briefings surfaced as President Donald Trump
...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...
and his administration keep pushing back on questions from Democratic politicians and others about how far Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
was set back by the strikes before last Tuesday’s ceasefire with Israel took hold.

"It was obliterating like nobody’s ever seen before," Trump said in an interview on Fox News Channel’s "Sunday Morning Futures." "And that meant the end to their nuclear ambitions, at least for a period of time."

Ratcliffe also told politicians that the intelligence community assessed the vast majority of Iran’s amassed enriched uranium likely remains buried under the rubble at Isfahan and Fordo, two of the three key nuclear facilities targeted by US strikes.

But even if the uranium remains intact, the loss of its metal conversion facility effectively has taken away Tehran’s ability to build a bomb for years to come, the official said.

Rafael Grossi, head of the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency, said Sunday on CBS’ "Face the Nation" that the three Iranian sites with "capabilities in terms of treatment, conversion and enrichment of uranium have been destroyed to an important degree."

But, he added, "some is still standing" and that because capabilities remain, "if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again." He said assessing the full damage comes down to Iran allowing in inspectors.

"Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared, and there is nothing there," Grossi said.

Appearing on the same CBS program, Iran’s ambassador to the UN vowed the Islamic Theocratic Republic "will never stop" enriching uranium.

"The enrichment is our right, an innate right, and we want to implement this right," said Amir Saeid Iravani.

Trump has insisted from just hours after three key targets were struck by US bunker-buster bombs and Tomahawk missiles that Iran’s nuclear program was "obliterated."

His defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has said they were "destroyed." A preliminary report issued by the US Defense Intelligence Agency, meanwhile, said the strikes did significant damage to the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan sites, but did not totally destroy the facilities.

As a result of Israeli and US strikes, Grossi says that "it is clear that there has been severe damage, but it’s not total damage." Israel claims it has set back Iran’s nuclear program by "many years."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
in comments at the NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
summit last week also suggested that it was likely the US strikes had destroyed the metal conversion facility.

"You can’t do a nuclear weapon without a conversion facility," Rubio said. "We can’t even find where it is, where it used to be on the map. You can’t even find where it used to be because the whole thing is just blackened out. It’s gone. It’s wiped out."

The CIA director also stressed to politicians during the congressional briefing that Iran’s air defense was shattered during the 12-day assault. As a result, any attempt by Iran to rebuild its nuclear program could now easily be thwarted by Israeli strikes that Iran currently has little wherewithal to defend against, the official said.

Ratcliffe’s briefing to politicians on the US findings appeared to mesh with some of Israeli officials’ battle damage assessments.

Israeli officials have determined that Iran’s ability to enrich uranium to a weapons-grade level was neutralized for a prolonged period, according to a senior Israeli military official who was not authorized to talk publicly about the matter.

Tehran’s nuclear program also was significantly damaged by the strikes killing key scientists, damage to Iran’s missile production industry and the battering of Iran’s aerial defense system, according to the Israeli’s assessment.
Link


International-UN-NGOs
Argentina accuses Iran of threatening IAEA head Grossi
2025-06-30
[IsraelTimes] Argentina has condemned what it said were threats against UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi after Iran rejected his request to visit nuclear facilities bombed by Israel and the United States.

Tehran has accused Grossi, an Argentine, of “betrayal of his duties” for not condemning the Israeli and US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites this month, and Iranian lawmakers voted to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency which he leads.

Argentina’s foreign ministry expresses its support for Grossi, saying it “categorically condemns the threats against him coming from Iran.”

The ministry also urges Iranian authorities to guarantee the safety of the IAEA chief and his team, and “refrain from any action that could put them at risk,” according to a statement on social media platform X.

It does not specify what threats Grossi has received.

On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X that “Grossi’s insistence on visiting the bombed sites under the pretext of safeguards is meaningless and possibly even malign in intent.”

Iran has said it believes an IAEA resolution on June 12 that accused Iran of ignoring its nuclear obligations served as an “excuse” for the 12-day war Israel launched on June 13.

In an interview with CBS News that aired Saturday, Grossi said Iran likely will be able to begin to produce enriched uranium “in a matter of months,” despite damage to several nuclear facilities from the recent strikes.
Link


Iraq
Lessons Unlearned from Israel's Bombing of Iraq's Osirak Reactor
2025-06-29
[Libertarian Institute] In a New York Times opinion article on June 21, Amos Yadlin, a former chief of Israel’s military intelligence, attempted to defend Israel’s recent decision to start a war with Iran, in which Israel was briefly joined by the U.S. government under the administration of President Donald Trump.

Under the headline "Why Israel Had to Act," Yadlin’s opening sentence states, "Forty-four years ago this June, I sat in the cockpit on the Israeli air force mission that destroyed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor. In one daring operation, we eliminated Saddam Hussein’s nuclear ambitions."

The parallels between that event and the current war on Iran are indeed remarkable—but the real lesson to be learned from it is precisely the opposite of the one Yadlin draws.

In addition to constituting aggression under international law, "the supreme international crime" as defined at Nuremberg, the American and Israeli bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities proves how policymakers in both countries refuse to learn from the lessons of history.

The claim that Israel’s bombing of Iraq’s Osirak reactor in 1981 halted or set back Saddam Hussein’s efforts to acquire a nuclear weapons capability is a popular myth.

In fact, Iraq had been a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) since it came into force in 1970, and its nuclear program was under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which had reported that the program was in compliance with Iraq’s legal obligations under the treaty.
[/sarc]
Israel, by contrast, is known to possess nuclear weapons and "has not adhered to" the NPT, as the United Nations Security Council observed in Resolution 487. Unanimously adopted on June 19, 1981, that resolution strongly condemned Israel’s act of aggression.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran could resume uranium enrichment in ‘matter of months,’ IAEA chief says
2025-06-29
There’s able to and there’s permitted, which they should consider carefully
[IsraelTimes] UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi says Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
likely will be able to begin to produce enriched uranium "in a matter of months," despite damage to several nuclear facilities from US and Israeli attacks, CBS News says.
If the bombs were effective, he’s pretty much out of a job, which is unthinkable. Therefore the bombs must not have been effective., amirite?
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the extent of the damage to the nuclear sites is "serious," but that the details are unknown, while US President Donald Trump
...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down...
insists Iran’s nuclear program has been set back "decades."

But Grossi, the director general of the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency, says "some is still standing."

"They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that," Grossi said Friday, according to a transcript of the interview released Saturday.

Another key question is whether Iran was able to relocate some or all of its estimated 408.6-kilo (900-pound) stockpile of highly enriched uranium before the attacks.

The uranium in question is enriched to 60 percent — above levels for civilian usage but below weapons grade. That material, if further refined, would theoretically be sufficient to produce more than nine nuclear bombs.

Grossi admitted to CBS: "We don’t know where this material could be."

"So some could have been destroyed as part of the attack, but some could have been moved. So there has to be, at some point, a clarification," he says in the interview.

For now, Iranian politicians voted to suspend cooperation with the IAEA and Tehran rejected Grossi’s request for a visit to the damaged sites, especially Fordo, the main uranium enrichment facility, which was struck by the US last Sunday.

"We need to be in a position to ascertain, to confirm what is there, and where is it and what happened," Grossi said.

US says it monitored all Iran nuke sites before strike and didn’t see any enriched uranium moved
[IsraelTimes] White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says the US was monitoring all of Iran’s nuclear facilities — not just the main underground one at Fordo — in the days leading up to its strike on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities and did not identify any enriched uranium being moved out of the facilities.

Trump says nothing was taken out of Iran nuclear facility
[IsraelTimes] US President Donald Trump says nothing was moved from an Iranian nuclear facility, echoing his defense secretary who earlier today said he is unaware of any intelligence suggesting Iran had moved its uranium to shield it from US strikes over the weekend.

“The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!” Trump, without providing evidence, writes on his social media platform.

No known intelligence that Iran moved uranium, US defense chief says
[IsraelTimes] US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says he is unaware of any intelligence suggesting Iran had moved any of its highly enriched uranium to shield it from US strikes on Iran’s nuclear program over the weekend.

“I’m not aware of any intelligence that I’ve reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be, moved or otherwise,” Hegseth says.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran holds honourary funeral for over 60 martyrs killed in war against Zionist entity
2025-06-28
[HodhodYemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
News] Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
held a funeral for more than 60 Iranians, including top military commanders and nuclear scientists, martyred during Zionist regime aggression against Iran.

The funeral proceedings kicked off at 8:00 am (0430 GMT) at Enghelab Square on Saturday.

Participants, who had gathered since the early hours of dawn, chanted various slogans, the most prominent of which were: "Death to America... Death to Israel."

They also called for the prosecution of Rafael Grossi, the Director General of the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency.

After 12 days of aggression against Iran and overwhelming responses by the Iranian armed forces, the Israeli occupation was forced to accept a ceasefire on the morning of the past Tuesday.


… top general Mohammad Bagheri; IRGC chief commander Hossein Salami; Aerospace Force commander Amir-Ali Hajizadeh; Khatam al-Anbiya commander Gholam-Ali Rashid and his successor Ali Shadmani; IRGC Quds Force Palestine Corps chief Saeed Izadi; and Saeed Borji, who was known as the figure behind Iran’s nuclear detonation technology.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran-Israel war: Latest developments
2025-06-26
[AnNahar] U.S. President Donald Trump
...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
said on Wednesday that the ceasefire that ended 12 days of war between ally Israel and Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
was going "very well", while leaked U.S. intelligence cast doubt on the damage caused by U.S. strikes to Tehran's nuclear program.

Here are the latest developments on the the second day of the ceasefire:

- 'DECADES' OF DAMAGE -
Trump insisted on Wednesday that U.S. strikes resulted in the "total obliteration" of Iran's nuclear capabilities, setting the country's atomic program back by "decades".

"They're not going to be building bombs for a long time," said Trump, who added that the ceasefire since Tuesday was going "very well".

U.S. media earlier cited people familiar with a preliminary U.S. intelligence report as saying that weekend strikes did not fully eliminate Iran's centrifuges or stockpile of enriched uranium.

The U.S. bombardments sealed off entrances to some facilities without destroying underground buildings, setting Iran's nuclear program back by several months, according to the Defense Intelligence Agency report.

- 'SIGNIFICANT HIT' -
The Israeli military said it had delivered a "significant hit" to Iran's nuclear program, but added that it was "still early to assess the results of the operation".

"I believe we have delivered a significant hit to the nuclear program, and I can also say that we have delayed it by several years," military front man Brigadier General Effie Defrin said in a televised presser.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday hailed a "historic victory" in the 12-day conflict and vowed to thwart "any attempt" by Iran to rebuild its nuclear program.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday the Islamic republic will continue to "assert its legitimate rights" to the peaceful use of atomic power.

- STATE FUNERALS -
Iran will hold state funerals on Saturday for senior military commanders and top scientists killed during the war.

Hossein Salami, the Revolutionary Guards chief killed by Israel on the war's first day on June 13, will be laid to rest in central Iran on Thursday.

According to the Iranian health ministry, Israeli strikes during the war killed at least 610 civilians.

Iran's attacks on Israel killed 28 people, according to official Israeli figures.

- 'TERROR' DESIGNATION -
Israel's defense minister on Wednesday designated Iran's central bank a "terror organization."

"Part of Israel's broader campaign against Iran", the move aims "to target the heart of the Iranian regime's terror financing system, which funds, arms and directs terror throughout the Middle East", said a statement from Minister Israel Katz's office.

- IRAN MPS ON IAEA -
Iranian politicians voted Wednesday in favor of suspending cooperation with the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
' nuclear watchdog.

"The International Atomic Energy Agency'>ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency, which refused to even marginally condemn the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, put its international credibility up for auction," Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, according to state TV.

The decision still requires the approval of the Guardian Council, a body empowered to vet legislation.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel assesses consequences of US strikes on Iran
2025-06-26
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The US Air Force strike on the Iranian city of Fordow destroyed critical infrastructure, causing the uranium enrichment facility to be out of action. This was reported on June 25 by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, citing the National Atomic Energy Commission.

"The devastating US attack on the Fordow facility destroyed key infrastructure and disabled the enrichment complex," the statement said.

The office added that, in their opinion, the US military strikes on Iranian targets, coupled with Israeli strikes, have set back Tehran's ability to develop nuclear weapons for many years.

As reported by the Regnum news agency, on June 22, American B-2 bombers attacked the Iranian cities of Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow. According to US President Donald Trump, the strikes allegedly hit Iranian nuclear facilities. At the same time, on June 25, American intelligence denied the words of the head of the White House about the destruction of the main components of the Iranian nuclear program.

In addition, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi noted on June 18 that there was no evidence that Tehran was developing nuclear weapons. The Iranian Foreign Ministry, in turn, called Washington's attack criminal, and the attacked facilities were peaceful and under IAEA control.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also condemned the American aggression and called the US attack unfounded, noting that there is no justification for it. He also said that Russia is working to help the Iranian people.

Iran says nuclear sites ‘badly damaged’ amid conflicting reports on strikes’ success

[IsraelTimes] Iran’s Foreign Ministry front man Esmail Baghaei on Wednesday confirmed the country’s nuclear facilities had been "badly damaged" in American strikes over the weekend, amid clashing evaluations on the extent of the success of operations against Tehran’s nuclear program.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Baghaei refused to go into detail but conceded the Sunday strikes by American B-2 bombers using bunker-buster bombs had been significant.

"Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure," he said.

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said Wednesday that there is a chance much of Iran’s highly enriched uranium was moved by Tehran soon after the first strikes, and thus survived the attacks.

Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
reportedly informed the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency on June 13, the first day of Israeli strikes, that it would take "special measures" to protect its nuclear materials and equipment.

"They did not get into details as to what that meant but clearly that was the implicit meaning of that, so we can imagine that this material is there," Grossi told a presser with members of the Austrian government.

Conclusive findings may take months, if they are obtained at all, a source told the US network.

Israel and Iran entered open conflict on June 13 when Israel launched a wave of Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s targeting Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites and ballistic missile program. Israel said the campaign was necessary to prevent the Islamic Theocratic Republic from realizing its declared plan to destroy the Jewish state. On June 22, the US struck key Iranian nuclear facilities at Natanz, Fordo and Isfahan.

Iranian officials say more than 600 people were killed in the strikes, a figure that does not differentiate between civilians and members of Iran’s armed forces.

Iran retaliated for Israel’s attacks by launching over 550 ballistic missiles and around 1,000 drones at Israel. Iran’s missile attacks killed 28 people and maimed thousands in Israel, according to health officials. Missiles hit apartment buildings, two universities and a hospital, causing heavy damage. Iran also fired at a US base in Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
after the American strikes, with no injuries reported.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
No nuclear contamination or risks to civilian caused by US airstrikes, Iran confirms; sat. images indicate severe damage to Fordo
2025-06-23
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] In the first official Iranian response to US Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s that targeted three nuclear sites within the country, Iranian authorities confirmed Sunday morning that there were ''no signs of contamination'' or threats to nearby populations.

Iranian officials emphasized that the core infrastructure of the nuclear facilities remains intact and secure.

"There may be 2,000 to 3,000 more centrifuges that were slated to go into this new enrichment plant," he said. "Where are they?"
Iran's Atomic Energy Organization stated it had immediately conducted inspections, confirming that ''there are no signs of contamination resulting from the American attacks on the nuclear sites.''

The National Nuclear Safety System Center added that monitoring systems detected no radiation leakage at the Fordow, Natanz, or Isfahan nuclear facilities, affirming that the situation is fully under control.

In related remarks, the representative of Qom in the Iranian parliament Mohammad Manan Raeisi assured that Fordow nuclear facility had not sustained serious damage contrary to the US President's claim.

He said that only the part that was on the ground had been damages which can be restored.

Raeisi said assured the people in the region that there was no radioactive emission after the aggression as the risky material had been evacuated from the site.

He said that it is now Iran's turn how to respond to the US president's foolish action in attacking Iranian nuclear sites.

They noted satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showing "unusual activity" at Fordo on Thursday and Friday, with a long line of vehicles waiting outside an entrance of the facility.
''There is no danger to the people of Qom and the surrounding area'', said the province's crisis management department, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Satellite images indicate severe damage to Fordo in US strikes, but doubts remain

[israelTimes] 6 holes seen punched into mountain above Iran’s deep nuclear plant, after series of bunker-busting bombs dropped; experts worry that nuclear material was moved prior to the attack

Commercial satellite imagery indicates the US attack on Iran’s Fordo nuclear plant severely damaged — and possibly destroyed — the deeply-buried site and the uranium-enriching centrifuges it housed, but there is no confirmation, experts said on Sunday.

"They just punched through with these MOPs," said David Albright, a former UN nuclear inspector who heads the Institute for Science and International Security, referring to the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-busting bombs that the US said it dropped. "I would expect that the facility is probably toast."

But confirmation of the below-ground destruction could not be determined, noted Decker Eveleth, an associate researcher with the CNA Corporation who specializes in satellite imagery. The hall containing hundreds of centrifuges is "too deeply buried for us to evaluate the level of damage based on satellite imagery," he said.

To defend against attacks such as the one conducted by US forces early on Sunday, Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
buried much of its nuclear program in fortified sites deep underground, including into the side of a mountain at Fordo.

Satellite images show six holes where the bunker-busting bombs appear to have penetrated the mountain, and then ground that looks disturbed and covered in dust.

The United States and Israel have said they intend to halt Tehran’s nuclear program. But a failure to completely destroy its facilities and equipment could mean Iran could more easily restart the weapons program, which US intelligence and the UN ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) say it shuttered in 2003, but which Israel says has continued in secret ever since.

Iran has long insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. But it has been enriching uranium to levels that have no civilian use, and has over the years regularly threatened to flatten Israeli cities.

’UNUSUAL ACTIVITY’
Several experts also cautioned that Iran likely moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of Fordo before the strike early Sunday morning and could be hiding it and other nuclear components in locations unknown to Israel, the US, and UN nuclear inspectors.

They noted satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showing "unusual activity" at Fordo on Thursday and Friday, with a long line of vehicles waiting outside an entrance of the facility. A senior Iranian source told Rooters on Sunday that most of the near weapons-grade 60-percent highly enriched uranium had been moved to an undisclosed location before the US attack.

"I don’t think you can with great confidence do anything but set back their nuclear program by maybe a few years," said Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. "There’s almost certainly facilities that we don’t know about."

Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, a US Democrat and member of the Senate intelligence committee who said he had been reviewing intelligence every day, expressed the same concern.

"My big fear right now is that they take this entire program underground, not physically underground, but under the radar," he told NBC News. "Where we tried to stop it, there is a possibility that this could accelerate it."

In response to Israel’s attacks, Iran’s parliament is threatening to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the cornerstone of the international system that went into force in 1970 to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, ending cooperation with the IAEA.

"The world is going to be in the dark about what Iran may be doing," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association advocacy group.

’DOUBLE TAP’
Rooters spoke to four experts who reviewed Maxar Technologies’ satellite imagery of Fordo, which shows six neatly spaced holes in two groups in the mountain ridge beneath which the hall containing the centrifuges is believed to be located.

General Dan Caine, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told news hounds that seven B-2 bombers dropped 14 GBU-57/B MOPs, 30,000-pound precision-guided bombs designed to drive up to 200 feet (60 meters) into hardened underground facilities like Fordo, according to a 2012 congressional report.

Caine said initial assessments indicated that the sites suffered extremely severe damage, but declined to speculate about whether any nuclear facilities remained intact.

Eveleth said the Maxar imagery of Fordo and Caine’s comments indicated that the B-2s dropped an initial load of six MOPs on Fordo, followed by a "double tap" of six more in the exact same spots.

Operation Midnight Hammer also targeted Tehran’s main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, he said, and struck in Isfahan, the location of the country’s largest nuclear research center. There are other nuclear-related sites near the city.

Israel had already struck Natanz and the Isfahan Nuclear Research Center in its 10-day war with Iran.

Albright said in a post on X that Airbus Defence and Space satellite imagery showed that US Tomahawk cruise missiles severely damaged a uranium facility at Isfahan and an impact hole above the underground enrichment halls at Natanz reportedly caused by a Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-busting bomb that "likely destroyed the facility."

Albright questioned the US use of cruise missiles in Isfahan, saying that those weapons could not penetrate a tunnel complex near the main nuclear research center believed to be even deeper than Fordo. The IAEA said the tunnel entrances "were impacted."

He noted that Iran recently informed the IAEA that it planned to install a new uranium enrichment plant in Isfahan.

"There may be 2,000 to 3,000 more centrifuges that were slated to go into this new enrichment plant," he said. "Where are they?"
Related:
Fordo: 2025-06-22 Trump says US has bombed Fordo nuclear plant in attack on Iran UPDATE: Trump bombs 3 nuke sites
Fordo: 2025-06-22 Iranian - Israeli War News roundup for June 21st, 2025: nuke scientist and IRGC Paleo div chief toes up, IDF hits more drones, F-14s, Isfahan again; Iran shoots off ballistic missiles and drones
Fordo: 2025-06-22 Suspected Iranian drones, missile fragments fall in Kurdistan Region
Related:
Natanz: 2025-06-22 Trump says US has bombed Fordo nuclear plant in attack on Iran UPDATE: Trump bombs 3 nuke sites
Natanz: 2025-06-21 This Is Why Trump Is Giving Iran Two Weeks to Give Up its Nuclear Ambitions
Natanz: 2025-06-21 Iran: Between War of Attrition and Defeat
Related:
Isfahan: 2025-06-22 Trump says US has bombed Fordo nuclear plant in attack on Iran UPDATE: Trump bombs 3 nuke sites
Isfahan: 2025-06-22 Iranian - Israeli War News roundup for June 21st, 2025: nuke scientist and IRGC Paleo div chief toes up, IDF hits more drones, F-14s, Isfahan again; Iran shoots off ballistic missiles and drones
Isfahan: 2025-06-21 At least 23 wounded by Iranian missile in Haifa Friday afternoon, woman dies of heart attack in Karmiel; Friday morning an Iranian missile hit Beersheba for 2nd day, wounding 7 after the IAF did its thing over Iran overnight
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Israeli drone strike said to target Iranian nuclear scientist in a Tehran safehouse
2025-06-21
[IsraelTimes] Israel on Friday launched a fresh wave of strikes on Iran and appeared to continue its campaign against Iran’s nuclear program, with reports emerging from Tehran that an IDF drone targeted and killed an Iranian nuclear scientist who had been holed up in a safe house.

The strike came as Defense Minister Israel Katz said that he instructed the IDF to "intensify strikes on regime targets in Tehran" to "destabilize" the Iranian regime.

An Iranian news website said a drone had struck an apartment in a residential building in central Tehran on Friday, but did not give details.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the scientist who was attacked specialized in weaponry and was being kept in a hiding spot outside of his home. An official speaking to the Journal refused to provide the scientist’s name.

The Israel Defense Forces have not yet commented on the reported strike, but the military has already confirmed the liquidation of 10 Iranian nuclear scientists who were killed during the opening attack of Israel’s campaign against Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
in "Operation Narnia."

The air campaign also saw some 25 Israeli fighter jets destroy on Friday morning some 35 missile launchers and storage sites in Iran’s Tabriz and Kermanshah, the military said. The IDF issued evacuation orders to local residents the previous night.

The IDF also said on Friday that air force strikes in Tehran earlier in the week struck Iran’s "Internal Security headquarters" and the headquarters of Iran’s "special internal security unit," which are part of Iran’s armed forces.

Israeli Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s also reached into the city of Rasht on the Caspian Sea early Friday, Iranian media reported. The Israeli military had warned the public to flee the area around Rasht’s Industrial City, southwest of the city’s downtown. But with Iran’s internet shut off to the outside world, it’s unclear just how many people could see the message.

Moreover, the International Atomic Energy Agency'>ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency said on Friday in a post on X that it has information that key buildings at Iran’s Arak heavy water research site in Khondab were damaged in Israeli strikes, including the distillation unit.

The information is an update on an assessment from Thursday, in which the IAEA said the reactor had been hit, but there were no radiological effects.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge the losses, and has not discussed the damage done so far to its military in the weeklong war.
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