
US and Iran disagree on scale of damage to nuclear facilities from US strikes, Kremlin aide says
Ushakov said Moscow welcomed the ceasefire between Iran and Israel and hoped it lasted and noted what he said were differing assessments of the impact of the U.S. attack.
"The one that carried out the strikes believes significant damage was inflicted. And the one who received these strikes believes that everything was prepared in advance and that these objects did not suffer excessive, significant damage," Ushakov told reporters.
A spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry said earlier on Wednesday that the U.S. strikes had caused significant damage to Tehran's nuclear facilities.
Earlier in the day, the Kremlin had said it thought it was too early for anyone to have an accurate picture of the extent of damage caused.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
Israel to allow foreign aid to parachute into Gaza but continues bombardment despite growing global pleas for ceasefire
ISRAEL will allow foreign aid to parachute into Gaza despite continuing its relentless onslaught. Horror scenes of mass starvation have sparked an international outcry after Israel restricted supplies to the territory. 7 7 7 7 Aid groups warned this week Palestinians are on the brink of famine with one in five children suffering from malnutrition, with UN warning civilians are becoming "walking corpses". But Israel has denied responsibility, blaming Hamas for the suffering of Gaza's population. Aid drops into the territory will be managed by Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, an Israeli official said. Despite the concession, Israel is keeping up its heavy bombardment in the face of global ceasefire please and huge protests in Tel Aviv. Explosions from fresh overnight strikes rocked the besieged coastal strip, with Israeli Defence Forces troops continuing to advance on Hamas lairs. The terrorists are still hiding out within civilian communities after the cornered Islamist group repeatedly rejected ceasefire terms. French president Emmanuel Macron yesterday ramped up pressure on Israel to halt fighting by announcing his nation would become the first in The West to recognise a Palestine state. Macron held emergency talks over the crisis today with UK PM Sir Keir Starmer who called conditions in the 25-mile enclave 'unspeakable and indefensible'. Starmer has already declared statehood is Palestinians' 'inalienable right' but has yet to officially declare recognition. Humanitarian workers have reported seeing children 'emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying' without urgent treatment, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UNRWA relief agency said. Starmer said: 'We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe. 'The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible. While the situation has been grave for some time, it has reached new depths and continues to worsen.' Gaza's health ministry - which is controlled by Hamas - said 82 of 113 hunger-related deaths recorded there so far are Palestinian children. But scores of desperate, innocent civilians have been killed queuing for food aid amid claims of IDF atrocities. US and Israeli negotiators in Qatar walked out of ceasefire talks on Thursday after Hamas submitted a list of 'impossible' demands. They reportedly included the release of more prisoners in exchange for hostages, including captured commandos involved in the October 7 attacks. Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff branded Hamas 'selfish' and suggested that the group 'does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith'. He added that the terror group's 'lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza' was the reason US negotiators had been recalled. 7 7 7 Thousands gathered in Tel Aviv's Habima Square on Thursday for a protest demanding Israel's strongman PM Benjamin Netanyahu end the Gaza war and return the hostages. Netanyahu has been accused of prolonging the bloodbath to save his political skin - and deflect blame for the security lapses which enabled Hamas to carry out the October 7 horror. The rally, which began with a moment of silence for fallen soldiers, was joined by parents of hostages, parents of soldiers, and reservists demanding and end to the war. Retired military commander Major General Noam Tibon said at the rally: 'In the beginning, this was a just war after 22 months, this war no longer has a security purpose. 'The war has turned into a political war, and while the best of us are falling in Gaza.'


Times
3 hours ago
- Times
Why Israel can't brush off France's recognition of a Palestine state
Words alone do not make a state. France's recognition of Palestinian sovereignty has more weight than that of most of the 150-odd nations that have granted it, since it is a permanent member of the United Nations security council, but Russia and China are too — without a state magically coming into existence. Israeli leaders would argue that there is a direct connection. If its back is put against the wall, they say, a country under constant attack from its neighbours can make fewer concessions, not more. However, Israel is not brushing off President Macron's pledge lightly. Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, rarely these days treats the moral pleadings of western counterparts with respect, as he once did, but he does sometimes brush them off with a weary contempt. Not this time. Since the war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, he has been more brittle. 'A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel, not to live in peace beside it,' he said. 'Let's be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel. They seek a state instead of Israel.' His supporters would argue that his recent change in tone towards western countries who have traditionally supported Israel is understandable. Israelis believe concern in the West about the plight of Gaza fails to take into account the extent to which this is the responsibility of Hamas, with its refusal to recognise the state of Israel and the barbaric nature of the October 7 attacks. Netanyahu is also being consistent. Although it now seems lost in the mists of time, his rise to the leadership of the Likud party and the prime minister's office in the 1990s was fuelled by his opposition to the Oslo Accords of 1993, which laid out a path to Palestinian statehood. However, there is a new, niggling problem for Netanyahu, of which his sensitivity on this topic may be a reflection. Despite his opposition to the realisation of Palestinian statehood on the ground, he has always been careful never to disavow it in theory. He could not do that, if logic has anything to do with this conflict, while maintaining the support of the United States, for which a 'two-state solution' is, even under President Trump, still the stated long-term basis of peace for the region. However, Netanyahu's government depends on a coalition with far-right parties who explicitly refuse to consider the policy and have used their places in his cabinet to push for annexation, in particular of the West Bank. For hardline religious nationalists and the ultra-Orthodox, Israel is not Israel without 'Judea and Samaria', as they now universally call the territory. Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, made the point succinctly. 'I thank President Macron for his decision to give us a reason to finally apply sovereignty in the West Bank and throw the idea of establishing an Arab terror state in the heart of the Land of Israel into the dustbin of history once and for all,' was his response. His supporters have already been attempting that, using the cover of the war in Gaza and Israeli attacks against militant groups in the West Bank to encourage settler groups to expand and stage raids on Palestinian villages. • Gun in hand, the Israeli settler tells the Palestinian: I will kill you One of these incidents — against a Christian Palestinian village — was so extreme that even Trump's Christian Zionist US ambassador, Mike Huckabee, was moved to call it an ' act of terror '. But US administrations as a whole have no answer to the increasing divorce between their profession of faith in a two-state endgame and the widening sense that Israeli policies have, in practice, made it impossible. When America fails to lead, Macron likes to think he can pick up the baton. His statement may be as much about the fate of the West Bank as images of starvation in Gaza.


The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Australian army officer stripped of security clearance over Israel loyalty leaves defence force
An officer in the Australian army, stripped of his security clearance because Asio believed he was more loyal to Israel, has left the Australian defence force. In February, Guardian Australia revealed the man had his clearance revoked after the administrative review tribunal (ART) upheld Asio's assessment that he was not of 'appropriate character and trustworthiness to hold any security clearance'. At the time of the ART decision, the man was in the inactive reserve pending administrative action but Guardian Australia understands he has now left the ADF. The man, anonymised in the ruling as HWMW, had told Asio interviewers he did not view Israel as a foreign government and that he would share classified information with the Israel Defense Forces if asked. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Asio said the officer, who is Jewish and had served 19 years in the Australian military, withheld information from Australian officials about training courses he undertook in Israel – where he is not a citizen – in 2016 and 2019, which included self-defence, security and firearms training. The training was for a Sydney community security group (CSG) – an organisation that provides security and intelligence services to the Jewish community – in which he volunteered between 2014 and 2023. The officer had said in cross-examination that withholding the information was not a lie but not a 'complete disclosure'. HWMW told interviewers the CSG training he did could be considered a 'natural recruiting pool' for the Mossad, which would probably be aware of the courses. The Greens senator and defence spokesperson, David Shoebridge, questioned defence officials in Senate estimates in February on whether there had been any review undertaken of ADF members who may have undertaken similar training by CSG 'that makes them incredibly susceptible to recruitment by a foreign government'. In a response tabled in the Senate this week, defence stated all security clearance holders have their suitability to hold the clearance reviewed on a regular basis, and an assessment of external loyalties is a key part of this process. 'Security clearance holders are required to report foreign contacts, in addition to a range of other issues that may impact their suitability to hold a clearance,' the department stated. Shoebridge said on Friday the department had failed to answer his question on whether a review of CSG groups had been undertaken. 'This should have been a simple exercise, having discovered an ADF member undertook secret training associated with a foreign government, then the exit should have been rapid,' he said. '[In defence] overarching loyalty to the US and its allies is seen as normal and entirely consistent with Australia's national interest. 'It is not, and this shows again the lack of genuine independence in so much of our defence and foreign policy.' The Asio director general, Mike Burgess, told Senate estimates in February that the case raised 'potential concerns' but said: 'I want to be clear here on the public record – there is nothing wrong with the community security groups'. He said, however, that it was important for people to be transparent about their involvement with the groups in overseas training. '[CSGs] perform a decent function, an important function, especially in times like this, [the] training they might provide to help provide security to members of the Jewish community is fine,' Burgess said. 'Of course, there is an element of that that in some cases it may be the case that that training done overseas in Israel might present an opportunity.'