Trump says he backs idea of inspectors checking Iran nuclear sites
President Donald Trump said on Friday he would like inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or another respected source to be able to inspect Iran's nuclear sites after they were bombed last weekend.
At a press conference in the White House briefing room, Trump said he believes the sites were 'obliterated.' He has rejected any suggestion that damage to the sites was not as profound as he has said.
But Trump said he would support the IAEA, the UN's nuclear watchdog, going in to check the sites that were bombed.
The agency's chief, Rafael Grossi, said on Wednesday that ensuring the resumption of IAEA inspections was his top priority, as none had taken place since Israel began bombing on 13 June. However, Iran's Parliament approved moves on Wednesday to suspend such inspections.
Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, indicated on Friday that Tehran may reject any request by the head of the agency for visits to Iranian nuclear sites.
Trump also said he does not believe Iran wants to still seek a nuclear weapon after US and Israeli bombing raids.
He said Iran still wants to meet about the way forward. The White House had said on Thursday that no meeting between the US and an Iranian delegation had been scheduled thus far.
Trump also said on Friday he would 'absolutely' bomb Iran again if intelligence indicated the country was still able to enrich uranium to nuclear weapons-grade.
Asked at the White House press conference whether he would consider fresh air strikes if last week's sorties were not successful in ending Iran's nuclear ambitions, he said:
Trump said Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 'got beat to hell' in the hostilities involving the United States and Israel and that 'it was a great time to end it.'
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USA Today
40 minutes ago
- USA Today
Few thought airstrikes could ‘obliterate' Iran's nuclear program. Then Trump said they did.
Experts long argued that airstrikes alone would not be capable of permanently ending Iran's nuclear program absent negotiations. WASHINGTON — A highly politicized debate is unfolding over the impact of June 21 U.S. airstrikes against Iran's nuclear facilities, raising questions over the attack's goal and projected impact. President Donald Trump quickly claimed total victory in the strikes' wake, claiming that Iran's 'key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.' Subsequent scrutiny of that claim amid early assessments from intelligence agencies has led Trump and his allies to double down on and even expand on his declarations of success. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed to CNN that the strikes 'obliterated Iran's ability to create nuclear weapons.' Iran itself has acknowledged the impact of the U.S. and Israeli attacks. But in the years since Washington's withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran, experts and analysts have emphasized that airstrikes alone would merely delay Iran's nuclear ambitions rather than permanently derail them. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Illinois, reiterated that long-held understanding in a June 26 interview. 'The targets are hard targets, deep targets, mobile targets. So it was never meant to eliminate the program,' Quigley told USA TODAY. 'It was never meant to do anything but slow the program.' The congressman, who is on the House's intelligence committee and has regularly received briefings on Iran, added, 'We've always been told . . . the only way to end this (nuclear) program is with a lot of troops on the ground for a long time. A war.' The former head of the National Nuclear Security Agency's nonproliferation programs, Corey Hinderstein, struck a similar tone. 'The conventional wisdom that you can't destroy the Iranian (nuclear) program through air attack alone has actually held,' said Hinderstein, now a vice president at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 'While some are saying that the airstrikes were tactically and strategically successful, I think that the jury is still out on that, and we don't actually have the information that we need to believe that this program is gone.' Third nuclear site, hidden centrifuges, missing uranium Iran may have another nuclear site that, if equipped with enrichment centrifuges and conversion equipment, could continue the process of preparing uranium for use in a nuclear bomb, if the regime wishes to pursue one. Shortly before Israel began its air campaign against Iran, the regime told the International Atomic Energy Agency that it had a third nuclear enrichment site but did not reveal details. Analysts believe an undisclosed underground facility at Pickaxe Mountain near the Natanz nuclear plant may be even deeper under the surface than the Fordow enrichment plant that was severely damaged in the U.S. strikes. The Pickaxe Mountain facility was first publicly revealed in 2023 by experts who spoke with the Associated Press. And it's unclear how much of Tehran's approximately 880 pounds of highly enriched uranium was destroyed or buried during the strikes — satellite images show cargo trucks parked outside the Fordow enrichment plant in the days before the U.S. attack. U.S. lawmakers briefed June 26 and June 27 on intelligence assessments of the strikes acknowledged the missing uranium and called for a full accounting of the material, according to CNN. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told the news agency that the question of the uranium's whereabouts underscores the importance of Iran negotiating 'directly with us, so the (IAEA) can account for every ounce of enriched uranium that's there.' More: Where is Iran's enriched uranium? Questions loom after Trump claims victory. But whether Iran wants to negotiate is another question. Despite the country's obligations as a member of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran's Guardian Council approved a law June 25 halting the country's cooperation with the IAEA and its inspections of Tehran's nuclear sites 'until the safety and security of our nuclear activities can be guaranteed,' the country's foreign minister said on social media. Contributing: Tom Vanden Brook and Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA TODAY Davis Winkie's role covering nuclear threats and national security at USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Outrider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
At least 34 killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza as ceasefire prospects inch closer
At least 34 people were killed across Gaza by Israeli strikes, health staff say, as Palestinians face a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and ceasefire prospects inch closer. The strikes began late on Friday and continued into Saturday morning, among others killing 12 people at the Palestine Stadium in Gaza City, which was sheltering displaced people, and eight more living in apartments, according to staff at Shifa hospital where the bodies were brought. Six others were killed in southern Gaza when a strike hit their tent in Muwasi, according to the hospital. The strikes come as US President Donald Trump said there could be a ceasefire agreement within the next week. Taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, the president said: 'We're working on Gaza and trying to get it taken care of.' An official with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press that Israel's minister for strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, will arrive in Washington next week for talks on Gaza's ceasefire, Iran and other subjects. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media. Talks have been on and since Israel broke the latest ceasefire in March, continuing its military campaign in Gaza and furthering the dire humanitarian crisis. Some 50 hostages remain in Gaza, fewer than half of them believed to be still alive. They were among some 250 hostages taken when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 2023, sparking the 21-month-long war. The war has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. It says more than half of the dead were women and children. There is hope among hostage families that Mr Trump's involvement in securing the recent ceasefire between Israel and Iran might exert more pressure for a deal in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is riding a wave of public support for the Iran war and its achievements, and he could feel he has more space to move toward ending the war in Gaza, something his far-right governing partners oppose. Hamas has repeatedly said it is prepared to free all the hostages in exchange for an end to the war in Gaza. Mr Netanyahu says he will end the war only once Hamas is disarmed and exiled, something the group has rejected. Meanwhile, hungry Palestinians are enduring a catastrophic situation in Gaza. After blocking all food for more than two months, Israel has allowed only a trickle of supplies into the territory since mid-May. Efforts by the United Nations to distribute the food have been plagued by armed gangs looting trucks and by crowds of desperate people offloading supplies from convoys. Palestinians have also been shot and wounded while on their way to get food at newly formed aid sites, run by the American and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to Gaza's health officials and witnesses. Palestinian witnesses say Israeli troops have opened fire at crowds on the roads heading toward the sites. Israel's military said it was investigating incidents in which civilians had been harmed while approaching the sites.
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Trump's trade deals are stalling out at the worst possible time
With just a week and a half remaining of a 90-day pause on President Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs, the White House is running out of time to negotiate its long-promised trade deals that could bring some certainty to an increasingly uneasy economy. But with just two trade frameworks inked and dozens to go before the July 9 deadline, that timeframe appears increasingly unlikely — just as America's economy might be taking a turn for the worse. For months, the Trump administration has said deals are imminent, working with 18 key partners to lower trade barriers while hundreds of other countries wait in line to get out from under the burden of higher tariffs. But the timeframe continues to shift. 'I've made all the deals,' Trump said in a Time interview in late April, saying trade negotiations with foreign partners were nearly complete. 'I've made 200 deals.' More than two weeks later, Trump acknowledged that hundreds or even dozens of deals aren't possible on such a short timeframe — a point he reiterated Friday at a press briefing at the White House. 'You know, we have 200 countries,' Trump said. 'We can't do that. So at a certain point, over the next week and a half or so, or maybe before, we're going to send out a letter. We talked to many of the countries, and we're just going to tell them what they have to pay to do business in the United States. And it's going to go very quickly.' That notion of establishing new tariffs for countries that can't or won't reach a deal with the United States has been floating around for over two months, but the timeline keeps getting pushed back. On April 23, Trump said his administration would 'set the tariff' for countries that fail to negotiate new terms in the following few weeks. On May 16, Trump said that 'at a certain point, over the next two to three weeks … we'll be telling people what they'll be paying to do business in the United States.' Meanwhile, the United States remains in active negotiations with its key trading partners. But those deals have been promised for months, too, with little to show for it. On June 11, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said a flood of deals was coming. 'You're going to see deal after deal, they're going to start coming next week and the week after and the week after. We've got them in the hopper,' he told CNBC. On Thursday, Lutnick told Bloomberg 10 deals would be announced imminently. But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also said Thursday that 'the deadline is not critical,' a point that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emphasized to Fox Business on Friday: Bessent said he thinks trade negotiations could be 'wrapped up' by Labor Day, providing a more relaxed framework for inking deals than the previously prescribed July 9 deadline. Meanwhile, Trump made clear Friday that trade policy could continue to grow more aggressive. In a social media message Friday, he said that the United States was pulling out of trade talks with Canada because of its digital services tax and that the administration would set a new tariff for its northern neighbor within the next week. And Bessent told CNBC Friday that about 20 countries could return to their 'Liberation Day' tariff rate starting on July 9, while others would receive longer windows to negotiate. He didn't name the countries that would receive the higher levies, but some nations' tariffs were set as high as 50% before Trump hit pause. 'The idea that uncertainty will be resolved early this summer appears to be completely dead,' Justin Wolfers, an economics professor at the University of Michigan, told CNN. 'This means tariff aggression is not dead. That's probably not super surprising but some of us allowed ourselves moments of optimism.' The problem with the perpetually pushed-back tariff timetable is that the economy could really use some deals right about now. After several months of strong economic news but incredibly weak consumer sentiment, America is starting to see those trends reverse: The vibes are on the rebound, but evidence is mounting that the economy is getting worse. Consumer sentiment climbed 16% this month, the University of Michigan said in its latest survey released Friday. Although consumer sentiment remains weak, the stock market is at an all-time high, which could give Americans a confidence boost. But that's not translating into spending. Consumer spending unexpectedly fell in May for the first time since January, the Commerce Department reported Friday. In real terms, consumer spending has now fallen so far in 2025. Inflation is ticking higher, job growth is slowing and retail sales are sinking. That's a concern, because consumer spending makes up two-thirds of America's economy. 'Households are anxious about what tariff-induced price hikes will do to their spending power, while concerns about the robustness of the jobs market are on the rise,' said James Knightley, chief US economist for ING, in a note to clients Friday. 'Equity markets have recovered and are at all-time highs, but house prices nationally are starting to come under downward pressure.' Many mainstream economists argue that the low inflation of the spring that helped boost consumer sentiment represents a calm before the summer storm, when they expect prices to rise as companies finish selling off inventories of products they had brought to the United States before Trump imposed tariffs. Friday's inflation report showed that the changeover to higher-tariff goods may have already begun to happen. 'Higher prices from tariffs may be starting to work their way through the economy,' said Robert Ruggirello, chief investment officer at Brave Eagle Wealth Management. Although tax cuts from Trump's sweeping domestic policy agenda could help mitigate higher prices from tariffs, Trump's trade war continues to risk retaliation from American's key trading partners. Higher tariffs from foreign countries could slow the US economy, risking a recession. 'Trading partners taking retaliatory action could have a lasting impact on US output and, accordingly, public finances,' said Michel Nies, an economist at Citi. That's why trade deals are so urgent: America's economy remains strong, but cracks are forming. Tariffs are a big reason why. More delays will generate more uncertainty. And those good vibes could turn bad pretty quickly. CNN's Matt Egan contributed to this report.
