Iran-Israel Ceasefire | May sign deal: Trump says US, Iranian officials will talk next week

Speaking at the NATO summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said that US and Iranian officials are set to hold talks next week, suggesting the conflict may be over. “I’ll tell you what, we’re going to talk with them next week, with Iran. We may sign an agreement, I don’t know, I don’t care if I have an agreement or not. The only thing we would be asking for is what we were asking for before, we want no nuclear.”

US President Donald Trump sparked global headlines at the NATO summit on Wednesday after he drew a comparison between the recent US airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“That hit ended the war,” Trump said, referring to Saturday’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. “I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima. I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing, that ended that war. This ended that with the war. If we didn’t take that out, they would have been, they’d be fighting right now.” Read

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has signed an order formally designating the Central Bank of Iran, along with several other financial and military-linked institutions, as terrorist organisations.

At the request of Israeli intelligence agencies, the defense ministry also labeled Shahr Bank, Mellat Bank, a company linked to Iran’s armed forces, and three senior Iranian officials as terror operatives and entities.

The move, announced Tuesday, “aims to target the heart of the Iranian regime’s terror-financing system,” the ministry said in a statement.

Israel’s designation aligns with longstanding US sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank, which Washington has also accused of financing terrorism.

Trump has compared the recent American strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, claiming it marked the end of hostilities between Iran and Israel.

Speaking on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in The Hague, Trump dismissed reports suggesting the US downplayed the scale of the attack. He criticised CNN and The New York Times for citing initial intelligence assessments that indicated limited damage.

“That hit ended the war,” Trump said. “I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima, I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing that ended that war.”

Trump said the US acted swiftly and decisively in response to Iranian threats. “We hear it was obliteration. It was a virtual obliteration,” he said. “When you take a look at the ground above … if you look at the before and after picture, everything above is burned black — the trees, everything.”

When asked if the United States would strike again if Iran rebuilt its nuclear enrichment programme, US President Donald Trump said: "Sure."

Iran's nuclear program has been put back decades, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday ahead of meeting other world leaders at a NATO Summit in the Hague, adding that he believed "total obliteration" was achieved.

"This was a devastating attack," Trump told reporters.

A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment said that the US airstrikes did not destroy Iran's nuclear capability and only set it back by a few months. Asked about the intelligence reports, Trump said "they really don't know."

Iran's parliament approved a bill on Wednesday to suspend cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, Reuters reported, quoting Iran's Nournews.

The country's Supreme National Security Council now needs to give final approval to the move, it added.

The former United States Secretary of Defense Gen James Mattis (retd) once said: “No war is over until the enemy says it’s over. We may think it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote.”

Donald Trump would have no difficulty in agreeing with Mattis, who served in his cabinet through 2017 and 2018, on Tuesday. Rapid changes in the President’s mood from early morning to evening reflected his unhappiness at Israel and Iran for disobeying his order to stop the war.

The day began with Trump’s jubilant announcement of a “complete and total ceasefire” after Israel and Iran had “wound down and completed their in-progress, final missions”. He congratulated “both Countries…on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, ‘THE 12 DAY WAR’”.

He said Israel and Iran had gone to him “almost simultaneously, and said, “PEACE!””, and he had known that “the time was NOW”. The future for the two countries was “UNLIMITED, & filled with great PROMISE”, he said, and ended his post on Truth Social with “GOD BLESS YOU BOTH!”

But his happiness and enthusiasm evaporated soon.

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NATO leaders gathered in The Hague on Wednesday for a summit tailor-made for US President Donald Trump, with European allies hoping a pledge to hike defence spending will prompt him to dispel doubts about his commitment to the alliance. The summit is expected to endorse a higher defence spending goal of 5% of GDP - a response to a demand by Trump and to Europeans' fears that Russia poses an increasingly direct threat to their security following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte acknowledged that it was not easy for countries to find the money for extra defence spending but said it was vital to do so. "There is absolute conviction with my colleagues at the table that given this threat from the Russians, given the international security situation, there is no alternative," he told reporters on Wednesday morning.

NATO officials are hoping the conflict between Israel and Iran, and the US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites at the weekend, will not overshadow the gathering, hosted by Rutte in his home city. Trump has threatened not to protect NATO members if they fail to meet spending targets and he raised doubts about his commitment again on his way to the summit by avoiding directly endorsing the alliance's Article 5 mutual defence clause.

- Reuters

US President Donald Trump has said that China can continue to purchase Iranian oil. However, the White House clarified that the decision by the US president did not indicate a relaxation of US sanctions on Tehran.

US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was asked by Fox News regarding the claims made in a US intel report leaked in American media that none of the Tehran's nuclear sites were harmed in the attack.

In response to the intelligence assessment prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's main intelligence arm, Witkoff said "We put 12 bunker buster bombs on Fordow. There's no doubt that it breached the canopy...and there's no doubt that it was OBLITERATED."

President Trump posted Witkoff's response on his Truth Social account wherein the US Middle East envoy further said "The reporting out there that in some way suggests that we did not achieve the objective is just completely preposterous!”

France and its partners in the Europe are all set to reactivate sanctions on Iran if an agreement is not reached soon regarding its nuclear program, French ambassador to the UN, Jérôme Bonnafont, has warned, reported The Guardian.

Iran has decided to extend its air space closure amid a fragile ceasefire in place with Israel, semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

An Iranian official from the transport ministry confirmed the development and said that Iranian air space would remain closed until 2pm (local time) on Wednesday.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that this country would strike Iran again if it rebuild its nuclear project, while describing his war on Tehran a "historic victory" that “will stand for generations”.

Netanyahu said that Israel, in its 12 days war with Iran, removed “the threat of nuclear annihilation”. Adding to it, Netanyahu said Israel had “no intention of easing off the gas pedal” and that Tel Aviv "must complete" its campaign to defeat the Iranian axis.

Ceasefire between Iran and Israel, who had been involved in a violent conflict since past 12 days, continues to hold after US President Donald Trump and Qatar helped mediate the agreement.

US President Donald Trump has said that he doesn't want a regime change in Iran amid a ceasefire being called to halt the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran.

"I'd like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible. Regime change takes chaos, and ideally we don't want to see so much chaos," Trump said, reported BBC.

Authorities in Iran have said that they have reportedly seized about 10,000 Israeli drones in the country which were allegedly sent by Tel Aviv, Fars news agency which is affiliated to Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reported.

Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump and Qatar to stop the 12-day conflict between the two warring nations.

At least two flights, carrying people evacuated from Israel, are scheduled to land in Delhi today.

Hackers backing Tehran have targeted US banks, defense contractors and oil industry companies following American strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities but so far have not caused widespread disruptions to critical infrastructure or the economy. But that could change if the ceasefire between Iran and Israel collapses or if independent hacking groups supporting Iran make good on promises to wage their own digital conflict against the US, analysts and cyber experts say.

The US strikes could even prompt Iran, Russia, China and North Korea to double down on investments in cyberwarfare, according to Arnie Bellini, a tech entrepreneur and investor. Bellini noted that hacking operations are much cheaper than bullets, planes or nuclear arms what defense analysts call kinetic warfare. America may be militarily dominant, he said, but its reliance on digital technology poses a vulnerability. “We just showed the world: You don’t want to mess with us kinetically,” said Bellini, CEO of Bellini Capital. “But we are wide open digitally. We are like Swiss cheese."

- AP

US President Donald Trump's Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff has stated that America and Iran are already in discussion to resume the negotiations over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, The Guardian reported.

Witkoff confirmed that both US and Iran were engaged in direct talks and via intermediaries to return to the discussion table amid a ceasefire being called by President Trump between Israel and Iran, halting a 12-day conflict.

Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations,Amir Saeid Iravani, has told the UN Security Council that the Islamic Republic is now closer to diplomacy than ever before.

Iravani said that Tehran emerged “proud and steadfast” from the Israeli and American attacks in the past 12 days.

"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," Iravani told the UNSC, reported The Guardian.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lashed out at the CNN for publishing the leaked intelligence report prepared by Pentagon's intelligence arm, Defense Intelligence Agency which stated that US strikes haven't destroyed Iran's nuclear sites rather it has only delayed it for months.

The White House acknowledged the intelligence assessment but said they disagreed with it. Leavitt categorically disputed the report and said the assessment was “flat-out wrong”.

In a post on X, she said "This alleged “assessment” is flat-out wrong and was classified as “top secret” but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community."

The Iranian authorities have arrested at least 700 suspects who are accused of having ties with Israel during its 12 day conflict with Tel Aviv, Reuters reported.

The US intelligence report prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which is an arm of the Pentagon, has stated that the US strikes on Iran haven't destroyed Iran's nuclear sites but has only set back the program by months.

What does the leaked intelligence report say:

Iran executed three men on Wednesday, after they were convicted of collaborating with Israel's spy agency Mossad and smuggling equipment used in an assassination, Mizan news agency reported.

After US President Donald Trump lashed out at the US media over the leak of the Pentagon's intelligence report, now the president's special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff has called the leak of the intelligence assessment report of the US strike on Iran as 'treasonous'.

Witkoff, in an interview to Fox News said, "It's outrageous, it's treasonous and it has to be investigated. Whoever's responsible for it should be held accountable."

US President Donald Trump has lashed out at US media over the leak of an intelligence report which was drafted by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), an intelligence arm of the Pentagon, which stated that US strikes didn’t destroy Iranian nuclear sites, but only set back programme by months.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said "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!"

The US House of Representatives has rejected an effort to impeach President Donald Trump from the presidency after his administration launched strikes on Iran's nuclear sites without prior approval from the Congress.

The action in the House took place after it was brought by Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas, which was not only rejected by the Republicans but even split his own party. The tally after the voting was 344-79 and the effort to impeach the Republican president was overwhelmingly rejected.

"I take no delight in what I'm doing. I do this because no one person should have the power to take over 300 million people to war without consulting with the Congress of the United States of America,” Green said ahead of the vote.

The United States is all set to open its embassy in Jerusalem on June 25, following a ceasefire between Israel and Iran after the two countries were involved in a 12-day conflict, the US embassy has said in a statement, reported Reuters.

Like the casino owner he once was, President Donald Trump has shown an appetite for risk during the first months of his administration. The US airstrike on Iran, however, may represent Trump's largest gamble yet. While the potential for political reward is high and largely dependent on whether Trump can maintain the fragile peace he is trying to forge between Iran and Israel, experts say, there is a downside risk of events spiraling out of Trump's control while a skeptical American public watches.

For now, Trump appears to have won his bet that he could limit US involvement and force the parties to a ceasefire. “He wagered,” said Firas Maksad, managing director for the Middle East and North Africa practice at Eurasia Group. “Things went his way.” It remains to be seen whether the ceasefire will hold. Early Tuesday, Trump expressed frustration that Israel had launched an attack on Tehran hours after the president had declared a break in the hostilities.

If the agreement doesn't stick - or if Iran ultimately retaliates militarily or economically - Trump risks fragmenting the America First coalition that helped power him back into office by rendering what his movement stands for increasingly nebulous and ill-defined. “If six months from now, Iran continues to be a problem, it will grind down the MAGA coalition,” said Chris Stirewalt, a political analyst with the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

- Reuters