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US attack on Iran: New phase of confrontation (2025 version)

Biased for what lol? Half of the iranian military leadership has been terminated at will amd I am biaaed. Just think about it 😂
Can you prove that? Iran is a massive country. Let’s say they have a military of 5 million….you are saying Israel wiped out 2.5m Iranian military members? Is your source Arnab Goswami?
 

Iran's nuclear programme is damaged but is it destroyed?​


The site of Fordo is probably the most spied on place on the planet.

Western intelligence first went public in 2009 that it was home to a secret nuclear facility and now understanding the damage done by US strikes will be vital in determining where the conflict goes next.

A leaked Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment has suggested the core components of Iran's nuclear programme have not been destroyed and the strikes only set back Iran's efforts by months rather than years.

But that is only initial assessment and labelled as "low confidence" – the tag comes because it is early days in trying to understand what happened at a place which is deliberately hidden from prying eyes.

The DIA is the Pentagon's own agency which specialises on military intelligence to support operations. It collects large amounts of technical intelligence but is distinct from other agencies like the CIA.

"Final battle damage will take some time," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Dan Caine said in the immediate aftermath. But what does it mean to destroy or damage the programme and how do you find out?

Satellite images of holes and dust reveal little about what really happened underground. And they do not suggest massive subsidence or a cave-in of the mountain.

That likely indicates that even though the US used multiple bombs, the Iranians used enough reinforced concrete to keep them from reaching the main hall and destroying the machinery inside. It was the first time these bombs had been used operationally, which adds to the uncertainty.

Even so the centrifuge machines, which spin at high speeds to enrich uranium, are highly sensitive which means the explosion will likely have crashed many of them by sending them spinning off their axis.

Developing a clearer picture of the damage will require other forms of intelligence – ranging from seismic detectors which can analyse the depth and magnitude of underground explosions (also used to understand earthquakes), sniffers to look for radiation (which international inspectors say they have not seen), and sensors like LIDAR (light detection and ranging) which can provide 3D maps using laser pulses from aircraft or drones to try and look inside the mountain.

Informers and intercepted communications will also be vital as they may reveal Iranians discussing the damage and its implications. All of that will be constantly updated to provide the final assessment with a higher degree of confidence.

And even if the sites like Fordo were dealt serious damage and made unusable for the moment, as US officials have claimed, that is different from saying it is the end of Iran's overall programme. That is because it could be reconstituted at new sites.

A fleet of lorries was seen at Fordo just before the attack and the crucial question is what they were moving and where it has gone.

All the indications are that Tehran moved its stock of highly enriched uranium to another location. Another mountain known as "pickaxe" has drawn international attention and Iran may also have moved some of the centrifuges, although almost certainly not enough to make progress at the speed it could have done before the attack.

And even when you have enough highly enriched uranium there are more stages required in making a bomb through weaponisation and developing a delivery system. Those require a level of extremely high specialist scientific knowledge. And one of Israel's most notable actions at the start of the conflict was to kill scientists involved in the programme in the hope of lengthening the timeline.

The attack will have certainly put back Iran's programme. But by how much? Any answer depends on working out what remains after attacks and is inevitably going to be an estimate rather than a hard figure.

All of this means that the work of intelligence agencies in trying to understand Iran's nuclear programme is going to become even more intense in the coming months. And if the signs are Tehran is secretly reconstituting the programme or racing for a bomb then the conflict is likely to begin again.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy7nxgzlpllo
 
Trump pushes back after leaked report suggests Iran strikes had limited impact

Donald Trump and his top officials have pushed back on a leaked intelligence report that said US strikes on Iran only set its nuclear programme back by a few months.

Speaking at a Nato summit in The Hague on Wednesday, Trump said the strikes led to the "virtual obliteration" of Iran's nuclear capabilities and set its atomic programme back "by decades".

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was also at the summit, said the preliminary Pentagon assessment was made with "low confidence" and the FBI was investigating the leak.

On Tuesday, sources familiar with the initial report into Saturday's bombings told the BBC's US partner CBS that Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium was not eliminated.

They added that the strikes had only set the country's nuclear programme back by a few months - an assessment the White House swiftly described as "flat-out wrong".

According to the report, strikes on the heavily fortified enrichment facilities at Fordo and Natanz had sealed off entrances but failed to destroy underground structures.

Officials familiar with the leaked Defense Intelligence Agency evaluation warned it was an early assessment that could change as more information becomes available about the sites.


 
CIA director says Iran's nuclear sites 'severely damaged'

The head of the CIA has said US strikes "severely damaged" Iran's nuclear facilities and set them back years, diverging from a leaked intelligence report that angered President Donald Trump by downplaying the raid's impact.

John Ratcliffe, the US spy agency's director, said key sites had been destroyed, though he stopped short of declaring that Iran's nuclear programme had been eliminated outright.

It comes a day after a leaked preliminary assessment from a Pentagon intelligence agency suggested core components of Iran's nuclear programme remained intact after the US bombings.

President Trump again maintained the raid had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear facilities.

The Republican president took to social media on Wednesday to post that the "fake news" media had "lied and totally misrepresented the facts, none of which they had".

He said Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth and other military officials would hold an "interesting and irrefutable" news conference on Thursday at the Pentagon "in order to fight for the Dignity of our Great American Pilots".

It came as Israel and Iran seemed for a second day to be honouring a fragile ceasefire that Trump helped negotiate this week on the 12th day of the war.

Speaking at The Hague where he attended a Nato summit on Wednesday, Trump said of the strikes: "It was very severe. It was obliteration."

He also said he would probably seek a commitment from Iran to end its nuclear ambitions at talks next week. Iran has not acknowledged any such negotiations.

But US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff told US network NBC there has been direct and indirect communication between the countries.

The statement from Ratcliffe, who was appointed by Trump, said the CIA's information included "new intelligence from an historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years".

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has also come out in support of Trump's assessment on the damage to Iranian nuclear facilities.

"If the Iranians chose to rebuild, they would have to rebuild all three facilities (Natanz, Fordo, Esfahan) entirely, which would likely take years to do," she wrote on X.

The US operation involved 125 military aircraft, targeting the three main Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday.

New satellite images show six craters clustered around two entry points at Fordo, with similar craters spotted at Isfahan. But it is unclear if the nuclear facilities located deep underground were wiped out.

A report from the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency was leaked to US media on Tuesday, estimating that the US bombing had set back Iran's nuclear programme "only a few months".

The US defence secretary said that assessment was made with "low confidence".

Officials familiar with the evaluation cautioned it was an early assessment that could change as more information emerges. The US has 18 intelligence agencies, which sometimes produce conflicting reports based on their mission and area of expertise.

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday that there is a chance Tehran moved much of its highly enriched uranium elsewhere as it came under attack.

But Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told Al Jazeera on Wednesday: "Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that's for sure." He did not elaborate.

A report by the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission said the strike on Fordo "destroyed the site's critical infrastructure".

The damage across all the sites, the report said, has pushed Iran's timeline for nuclear weapons back by "many years".

Yet Mehdi Mohammadi, an adviser to the chairman of the Iranian parliament, said shortly after the US strikes that "no irreversible damage was sustained" at Fordo.

Iran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is peaceful. US intelligence agencies have previously said Tehran was not actively building atomic weapons.

BBC
 
Iran got manhandled but their supreme leader Khomeni is still making dumb statements like they have taught US a lesson by slapping them and other BS........

Dude wants death wish clearly.
 
Now European intelligence stating the enriched uranium was moved out of Fordor before the bombing.

So much for the claims Iran's nuclear programme was obliterated !
 
Now European intelligence stating the enriched uranium was moved out of Fordor before the bombing.

So much for the claims Iran's nuclear programme was obliterated !
In the lead up to the attack, US media and to some extent the White House too understood that Fordo isn’t a one off job with B2 stealth bombers

The stealth bombers can only create a way through, and it requires troops on ground to finish the job

Besides that, it was also reported that it may require a few strikes over a period of time to make the necessary inroads
 
Only 3 countries can give Iran its nuclear weapons.
Pakistan, China or Russia.
Pakistan will not do it because they will not want to anger Arabs who they depend on financially.
So it’s either Russia or China. The question is what do Russia and China get by empowering Iran.
 
No matter how many fighter jets they buy, they are no match to US.
By going against US, these crazy Ayotollahs are putting Iranian people in harms way.
So what? They just wait to die?

They will survive and they will prosper!
 
I can say the same thing to you. It’s not your Phupha’s country either.👍

Wishing innocents should not die is somehow wrong to you it looks like.🙄
I’m wishing innocents to die?? I’m asking them to prepare better to defend their lives. It’s you who wants them to die!
 
They are better off going for better air defences and new swarming drone tech as well as ramping up their missile production and hypersonic at that. Unless it's Chinese stealth fighter, there is no point spending on J10c. Pakistan can do so because it is up against India.
 
I’m wishing innocents to die?? I’m asking them to prepare better to defend their lives. It’s you who wants them to die!
Defend what? How can they defend their country from American weapons? Common people with no military experience cannot fight. This is not a movie or 14th century where every man with a stick is considered a fighter:facepalm:
Accha? I want common people to die? May be you are weak in reading. Go read my posts and tell me where I said I wanted common people to die. I will wait for your response.
 
As if death is a deterrent for an 86 year old!!
Exactly. This 86 yr old looney will die anyways. Why is he making stupid statements and talking about slapping America and how they bombed American military bases in Qatar? He seems to want the war to continue.
Instead of understanding the ground realities, this old clown wants war which means hundreds of Iranian deaths in a war they cannot win.
 
I’m wishing innocents to die?? I’m asking them to prepare better to defend their lives. It’s you who wants them to die!

These sanghis celebrate when Muslim civilians die. Now they are accusing others of celebrating innocent deaths. How ironic!

Unlike them, we don't cheer when innocent civilians die.
 
US gained nothing from strikes, Iran's supreme leader says

Iran's supreme leader has insisted the US "gained no achievements" from strikes on its nuclear facilities, in his first public address since a ceasefire with Israel was agreed on Tuesday.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the strikes did not "accomplish anything significant" to disrupt Iran's nuclear programme, and described the retaliation against an American air base in Qatar as dealing a "heavy blow".

It came as Washington doubled down on its assessment that the strikes had severely undermined Iran's nuclear ambitions.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said intelligence gathered by the US and Israel indicated the operation "significantly damaged the nuclear programme, setting it back by years".


 
Outrage as Trump compares Iran strikes to Japan atomic bombing

Japan condemned US President Donald Trump for comparing recent US strikes on Iran to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended World War II.

"That hit ended the war," Trump told reporters on Wednesday. "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."

About 140,000 people died when the US dropped atomic bombs on the two southern Japanese cities in August 1945. Survivors live with psychological trauma and heightened cancer risk to this day.

If Trump's comments "justifies the dropping of the atomic bomb, it is extremely regrettable for us as a city that was bombed," said Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki.

Trump's comments are "unacceptable", said Mimaki Toshiyuki, an atomic bomb survivor who co-chairs the Nobel Peace Prize-winning advocacy group Nihon Hidankyo, according to public broadcaster NHK.

"I'm really disappointed. All I have is anger," said another member of the group, Teruko Yokoyama, in a Kyodo News report.

Survivors of the atomic bomb attacks staged a protest in Hiroshima on Thursday, demanding Trump retract his statement.

Lawmakers in Hiroshima also passed a resolution on Thursday rejecting statements that justify the use of atomic bombs. They also called for armed conflicts to be settled peacefully.

Asked if Tokyo would lodge a complaint over Trump's remarks, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi Yoshimasa said that Japan has repeatedly expressed its position on atomic bombs to Washington.

Trump's comments on Wednesday came as he pushed back on a leaked intelligence report that said US strikes on Iran only set its nuclear programme back by a few months.

Trump had insisted that the strikes "obliterated" the programme and set it back "decades" - a claim backed by CIA director John Ratcliffe.

Japan is the only country in the world to have been hit by a nuclear attack and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki stir painful memories.

In Hiroshima, a peace flame that symbolises the country's opposition to nuclear weapons has been burning since the 1960s while a clock that counts the number of days since the world's last nuclear attack is displayed at the entrance of a war museum.

World leaders who visit Hiroshima are also asked to make paper cranes to affirm their commitment to peace.

BBC
 
US Senate Just Gave Trump a Free Hand to Strike Iran

The Republican-led U.S. Senate rejected a Democratic-led bid on Friday to block President Donald Trump from using further military force against Iran, hours after the president said he would consider more bombing.

The Senate vote was 53 to 47 against a war powers resolution that would have required congressional approval for more hostilities against Iran. The vote was along party lines, except Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman voted no, with Republicans, and Kentucky Republican Rand Paul voted yes, with Democrats.

Senator Tim Kaine, chief sponsor of the resolution, has tried for years to wrest back Congress' authority to declare war from both Republican and Democratic presidents.

Kaine said his latest effort underscored that the U.S. Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the sole power to declare war and requires that any hostility with Iran be explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for the use of military force.

"If you think the president should have to come to Congress, whether you are for or against a war in Iran, you'll support Senate Joint Resolution 59, you'll support the Constitution that has stood the test of time," Kaine said in a speech before the vote.

Lawmakers have been pushing for more information about weekend U.S. strikes on Iran, and the fate of Iran's stockpiles of highly enriched uranium.

Earlier on Friday, Trump sharply criticized Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, dropped plans to lift sanctions on Iran, and said he would consider bombing Iran again if Tehran is enriching uranium to worrisome levels.

He was reacting to Khamenei's first remarks after a 12-day conflict with Israel that ended when the United States launched bombing raids against Iranian nuclear sites.

'OBLITERATED'

Members of Trump's national security team held classified briefings on the strikes for the Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday and Friday. Many Democratic lawmakers left the briefings saying they had not been convinced that Iran's nuclear facilities had been "obliterated," as Trump announced shortly after the raid.

Opponents of the resolution said the strike on Iran was a single, limited operation within Trump's rights as commander-in-chief, not the start of sustained hostilities.

Senator Bill Hagerty, a Tennessee Republican who served as ambassador to Japan during Trump's first term, said the measure could prevent any president from acting quickly against a country that has been a long-term adversary.

"We must not shackle our president in the middle of a crisis when lives are on the line," Hagerty said before the vote.

Trump has rejected any suggestion that damage to Iran's nuclear program was not as profound as he has said. Iran says its nuclear research is for civilian energy production.

Under U.S. law, Senate war powers resolutions are privileged, meaning that the chamber had to promptly consider and vote on the measure, which Kaine introduced this month.

But to be enacted, the resolution would have had to pass the Senate as well as the House of Representatives, where Speaker Mike Johnson, a close Trump ally, said this week he did not think it was the right time for such an effort.

During Trump's first term, in 2020, Kaine introduced a similar resolution to rein in the Republican president's ability to wage war against Iran. That measure passed both the Senate and House of Representatives, with some Republican support, but did not garner enough votes to survive the president's veto.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-rejects-bid-curb-trumps-iran-war-powers-2025-06-27/
 
Santani Dar al Khilafa al Hindiyyah stands firmly with the Islamic Kingdom of Zorosatrian Persia
 
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