CTV National News: David Fraser on Iran's military capabilities
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CTV's Military Analyst Retired Major General David Fraser looks at potential retaliation from Iran and the country's military capabilities.
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CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Intercepted Iranian communications downplay damage from U.S. attack, Washington Post reports
This satellite picture by Planet Labs PBC shows Iran's underground nuclear enrichment site at Fordo following U.S. airstrikes targeting the facility, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (Planet Labs PBC via AP) WASHINGTON — Intercepted Iranian communications downplayed the extent of damage caused by U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear program, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing four people familiar with classified intelligence circulating within the U.S. government. A source, who declined to be named, confirmed that account to Reuters but said there were serious questions about whether the Iranian officials were being truthful, and described the intercepts as unreliable indicators. The report by the Post is the latest, however, to raise questions about the extent of the damage to Iran's nuclear program. A leaked preliminary assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency cautioned the strikes may have only set back Iran by months. President Donald Trump has said the strikes 'completely and totally obliterated' Iran's nuclear program, but U.S. officials acknowledge it will take time to form a complete assessment of the damage caused by the U.S. military strikes last weekend. The White House dismissed the report by the Post. 'The notion that unnamed Iranian officials know what happened under hundreds of feet of rubble is nonsense. Their nuclear weapons program is over,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was quoted as saying by the Post. In an interview broadcast on Sunday on Fox News, Trump reiterated his confidence that the strikes had destroyed Iran's nuclear capabilities. 'It was obliterated like nobody's ever seen before. And that meant the end to their nuclear ambitions, at least for a period of time,' he said on the 'Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo' program. Reporting by Phil Stewart and Katharine Jackson; Editing by Chris Reese
CTV News
5 hours ago
- CTV News
Trump calls for a ceasefire deal on the war in Gaza as signs of progress emerge
The sun sets behind destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip near the Israel-Gaza border, southern Israel, Thursday, June 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo) TEL AVIV, Israel — U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday urged progress in ceasefire talks in the 20-month war in Gaza, as Israel and Hamas appeared to move closer to an agreement. A top adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ron Dermer, was set to travel to Washington this week for talks on a ceasefire, an Israeli official said, and plans were being made for Netanyahu to travel there in the coming weeks, a sign there may be movement on a deal. The official declined to discuss the visit's focus and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss plans that had not been finalized. 'MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!' Trump wrote on social media early Sunday. Trump raised expectations Friday for a deal, saying there could be an agreement within the next week. Trump has repeatedly called for Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza. An eight-week ceasefire was reached just as he took office earlier this year, but Israel resumed the war in March. Trump post slams Netanyahu corruption trial Trump also doubled down on his criticism of the legal proceedings against Netanyahu, who is on trial for alleged corruption, calling it 'a POLITICAL WITCH HUNT, very similar to the Witch Hunt that I was forced to endure.' In the post Saturday evening, Trump said the trial interfered with ceasefire talks. Netanyahu 'is right now in the process of negotiating a Deal with Hamas, which will include getting the Hostages back. How is it possible that the Prime Minister of Israel can be forced to sit in a Courtroom all day long, over NOTHING,' Trump wrote. Last week, Trump called for the trial to be canceled. It was a dramatic interference by an ally in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state. It unnerved many in Israel, despite Trump's popularity there. The trial has repeatedly been postponed at Netanyahu's request, citing security and diplomatic developments. On Sunday, the court agreed to call off two more days of testimony by him scheduled this week. Major sticking point over how the war ends Talks between Israel and Hamas have repeatedly faltered over a major sticking point: whether the war should end as part of any ceasefire agreement. Hamas official Mahmoud Merdawi accused Netanyahu of stalling progress on a deal, saying on social media that the Israeli leader insists on a temporary agreement that would free just 10 of the hostages. About 50 hostages remain, with less than half believed to be alive. Netanyahu spokesperson Omer Dostri said 'Hamas was the only obstacle to ending the war,' without addressing Merdawi's claim. Hamas says it is willing to free all the hostages in exchange for a full withdrawal of Israeli troops and an end to the war. Israel rejects that offer, saying it will agree to end the war if Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile, something the group refuses. The war in Gaza began with the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack in which militants killed 1,200 people and took roughly 250 hostage. Gaza's Health Ministry on Sunday said another 88 people have been killed by Israeli fire over the past 24 hours, raising the war's toll among Palestinians to 56,500. The ministry, which operates under the Hamas government, does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its count but says more than half of the dead are women and children. The war has displaced most of Gaza's population, often multiple times, obliterated much of the territory's urban landscape and left people overwhelmingly reliant on outside aid, which Israel has limited since the end of the latest ceasefire. Fewer than half of Gaza's hospitals are even partly functional, and over 4,000 children need medical evacuation abroad, a new U.N. humanitarian assessment says. Israeli military orders new evacuations in northern Gaza The Israeli military ordered a mass evacuation of Palestinians in large swaths of northern Gaza, an early target in the war that has been severely damaged by multiple rounds of fighting. Hundreds of thousands of people are in northern Gaza following their return during the ceasefire earlier this year. Col. Avichay Adraee, a military spokesperson, posted the order on social media. It includes multiple neighborhoods in eastern and northern Gaza City, as well as the Jabaliya refugee camp. The military will expand its escalating attacks westward to the city's center, calling for people to move toward the Muwasi area in southern Gaza, Adraee said. An Israeli military offensive aims to move Palestinians to southern Gaza so forces can more freely operate to combat militants. Rights groups say their movement would amount to forcible displacement. Tia Goldenberg, Samy Magdy and Wafaa Shurafa, The Associated Press Magdy reported from Cairo and Shurafa from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip.
Globe and Mail
6 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Iran could produce enriched uranium in a ‘matter of months,' IAEA chief says
Iran could be producing enriched uranium in a few months, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog Rafael Grossi was quoted as saying on Sunday, raising doubts about how effective U.S. strikes to destroy Tehran's nuclear program have been. U.S. officials have stated that their strikes obliterated key nuclear sites in Iran, although U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he would consider bombing Iran again if Tehran is enriching uranium to worrisome levels. 'The capacities they have are there. They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that,' Grossi told CBS News in an interview. 'Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there,' he added, according to the transcript of an interview on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan due to air on Sunday. The Israel-Iran war highlighted a harsh truth for Canada: Our oil economy has no future Saying it wanted to remove any chance of Tehran developing nuclear weapons, Israel launched attacks on Iran earlier this month, igniting a 12-day air war that the U.S. eventually joined. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Grossi, who heads the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, said the strikes on sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan had significantly set back Iran's ability to convert and enrich uranium. However, Western powers stress that Iran's nuclear advances provide it with an irreversible knowledge gain, suggesting that while losing experts or facilities may slow progress, the advances are permanent. 'Iran is a very sophisticated country in terms of nuclear technology,' Grossi said. 'So you cannot disinvent this. You cannot undo the knowledge that you have or the capacities that you have.' Grossi was also asked about reports of Iran moving its stock of highly enriched uranium in the run-up to the U.S. strikes and said it was not clear where that material was. 'So some could have been destroyed as part of the attack, but some could have been moved,' he said.
