Trump-Iran live: 'Destroyed, obliterated… choose your word' - Hegseth defends Iran strikes

Sky News

26-06-2025

15:10:01
Key takeaways from Hegseth briefing
During his news briefing earlier, Pete Hegseth applauded what he described to be successful US strikes on nuclear sites in Iran and repeatedly rallied against media.
Alongside General Dan Caince, he packed a lot in across around 45 minutes - so to get you up to speed, here's a summary of what he said in seven bullet points:
Hegseth said what Donald Trump achieved at the NATO summit was "game-changing" and "historic". It should be noted here that yesterday leaders agreed to a 5% of GDP spending target on defence;
The defence secretary criticised mainstream US outlets and called reports about US strikes on Iran's nuclear capability failing untrue;
Quizzed on whether he was certain none of the uranium at Iran's Fordow facility was moved, Hegseth said: "Of course, we're watching every single aspect";
US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine said Patriot missiles defended an Iranian attack on a US base in Qatar on Monday;
He also said Operation Midnight Hammer was the "culmination of 15 years of incredible work";
He explained that a defence threat reduction agency officer was brought into a vault at an undisclosed location and briefed on something going on in Iran for security purposes in 2009;
The army official said all six weapons hit Fordow nuclear site where the US wanted.
14:47:32
US strikes have 'broken the aura of invincibility' for Iran, expert says
US strikes on Iran have "broken the aura of invincibility that the Iranian regime has enjoyed" for decades, an expert has said.
Speaking to Sky's presenter Jayne Secker, research fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democrats, Hussain Abdul-Hussain, said the US victory in Iran "has been decisive".
"I think this has forced Iran to step back," he said.
"This has also broken the aura of invincibility that the Iranian regime has enjoyed for the past two decades at least."
He said it was understood that the nuclear facilities had been "badly damaged".
"It seems that there is almost a consensus that the weaponisation programme of Iran is no more," he said.
He also said that the Iran's relations with its proxies, such as the Houthis and Hezbollah, had also been weakened in the attack.
14:30:01
Fordow centrifuges 'no longer operational', nuclear watchdog chief says
The centrifuges at the Fordow nuclear site in Iran are "no longer operational" following the US strikes, Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has said.
Grossi said his team could deduct on the basis of satellite images, the consequences of the bombing over the weekend.
"Given the power of these bombs and technical characteristics of the centrifuges, we do know that they are no longer operational, simply because of the vibration, which causes considerable, important physical damage," the nuclear watchdog chief told French radio station Radio France Internationale.
"I know the plant very well, it's a network of tunnels with different types of activity.
"What we saw on the pictures corresponds more or less to the enrichment hall, that's what's been hit."
We reported earlier that Iran had approved a bill to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) (see post at 11.01am).
That came after Grossi said getting inspectors back to Iran's nuclear facilities to assess the impact of US and Israeli military strikes was his "top priority".
14:18:07
Analysis: 'Defensive secretary' furious at media and was right about one thing
Pete Hegseth set out to scold the media and herald the US military for what he said were successful strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
The US defence secretary was taking issue with coverage of Saturday's operation, which a preliminary intel report suggested didn't cause the "obliteration" Donald Trump quickly described.
"Was he the defence secretary or the defensive secretary? He was certainly angry, that much is true," our US correspondent Mark Stone said on air a short while ago.
"Hegseth - former Fox News host now turned politician and a man who doesn't mince his words - he was very clear that his focus today was to blame the media for what he said was somehow them questioning the ability of the pilots and the crews that carried out that mission."
Stone adds: "For what it's worth, I've not read a single bit of news from the US media that has been critical of those soldiers and airmen and women who carried out that strike on Saturday night."
But what is also "definitely the case", he added, is the leaked report was incomplete.
"And Hegseth pointed that out. It was a preliminary, low-confidence report," he said.
"I think it's fair to say that was not necessarily made clear in the flurry of headlines that came out a couple of days ago when that report was leaked."
Trump's NATO vibes
One point that may have been missed through all this, Stone added, is Trump's apparent change following the NATO summit yesterday.
"Donald Trump came away from that summit genuinely with a different vibe to him," he said.
"He seems to now have recognised that Europe is prepared to pay its own way, is prepared to look after its own security.
"I think it was sort of a change moment for Donald Trump. The only caveat is he does tend to change his mind quite a lot."
13:58:42
'We don't play your little games': Hegseth bats away question about female pilot
A reporter at the Pentagon asks Pete Hegseth when he will acknowledge that one of the female pilots on the mission was a woman.
"The early messages you sent out only congratulated the boys," the reporter says.
Hegseth says "boys and bombers" is "a common phrase".
"I will keep saying things like that whether they are men or women," he adds.
"I am very proud of that female pilot, just like I am very proud of those male pilots.
"I don't care if it is a male or female in that cockpit. And the American people don't care.
"It's the obsession with race and gender. We don't do that anymore, we don't play your little games."
13:54:15
Hegseth rows with reporter over whether enriched uranium was moved before strike
Taking questions still, defence secretary Pete Hegseth was repeatedly pressed over whether enriched uranium was moved from the Fordow facility before the US strikes.
This came about because satellite images from before the US strike showed trucks lining up outside Fordow.
Things got so heated that he ended up arguing with Jennifer Griffin, Fox News' chief national security correspondent.
Asked initially about it by a first reporter, he said: "There's nothing that I've seen that suggests that what we didn't hit exactly what we wanted to hit, in those locations."
Quizzed a second time if he was certain none of the uranium was moved by Griffin, he said: "Of course, we're watching every single aspect."
However, he took issue with Griffin's previous reporting, saying: "You've been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most intentionally what the president says."
Griffin pushed back, defending her reporting and pointing out how accurately she was writing specifics of the attacks soon after the strike took place.
She said: "I reported on the ventilation shafts, and in fact, I was first to describe the B-2 bombers, the refuelling, the entire mission with great accuracy."
Then asked a third time about whether the enriched uranium was hit by another separate reporter, Hegseth said: "So 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."
Watch the full argument below:
For context: Satellite images emerged on Saturday showing lines of trucks outside the Fordow facility, raising questions over whether Tehran knew the strikes were coming.
Also, as General Caine said earlier, Iran did take some action to protect Fordow, putting concrete caps on the ventilation shafts ahead of time.
13:43:32
'When someone leaks something they do it with an agenda'
After the US strikes, officials said it would take some time to comment on what may or may not still be at the site in Iran.
Asked by a journalist what has now changed to make Washington provide more detail, Pete Hegseth says there was "irresponsible reporting based on leaks".
"When someone leaks something, they do it with an agenda," he says.
He says this then starts a "new cycle".
"That is what has changed," he adds.
13:38:24
'All six weapons hit Fordow exactly where we wanted' - general explains method of US strikes
General Dan Caine has detailed the specifics of the US attack on Fordow now, and how they penetrated into the nuclear site.
Caine said that Washington targeted ventilation shafts.
"All six weapons at each vent at Fordow went exactly where they were intended to go," he said.
Caine said that Iran, seemingly aware of the coming attack, tried to cover the ventilation shafts with concrete.
"I won't share the specific dimensions of the concrete cap, but you should know that we know what the dimensions of those concrete caps were," he said.
The caps were destroyed by the first strikes, leaving the shaft uncovered for the following attacks.
Caine went on: "The main shaft was uncovered for weapons two, three, four, five, and they were tasked to enter the main shaft, [and] moved down into the complex at greater than 1000ft per second and exploded in the mission space.
"Weapon number six was designed as a flex weapon to allow us to cover if one of the preceding jets, or one of the preceding weapons, did not work."
'We don't grade our own homework'
Later, asked if he would share Hegseth's description of "obliterated", Caine dodged the question, saying: "We don't grade our own homework."
Instead, earlier in the news conference, Caine said that trailing jets saw the first weapons explode and the pilots said: "This was the brightest explosion I've ever seen. It literally looked like daylight."
13:34:01
'Operation Midnight Hammer was culmination of 15 years of work'
General Dan Caine says that Operation Midnight Hammer was the "culmination of 15 years of incredible work".
Talking about the weapons used, he says in the case of Fordow, the US team understood with a high degree of confidence the elements of the target required to kill its functions.
"Weapons were planned, designed and delivered to ensure they achieved the effects in the mission space," he says.
He also explains that in 2009, a defence threat reduction agency officer was brought into a vault at an undisclosed location and briefed on something going on in Iran for security purposes.
"He was shown some photos and some highly classified intelligence of what looks like a major construction project in the mountains of Iran," he says.
"He was tasked to study this facility, work with the intelligence community to understand it, and he was soon joined by an additional teammate for more than 15 years.
"This officer and his teammate lived and breathed this single target - Fordow."
He also says the agent "watched the construction, the weather, the discard material, the geology and the construction materials".