Iran accused of 'hiding nuclear weapon ingredients' as Trump's ceasefire remains
The ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran hangs in the balance only hours after it was announced by President Trump - and an expert warned Iran may be hiding 'thousands of nuclear bomb supplies'
Only two hours after President Trump had announced a ceasefire had been struck between Israel and Iran - peace was hanging in the balance. Israel accused Iran of sending missiles - something it denied - and launched counterstrikes, despite the US President urging them not to act.
"Do not drop those bombs. If you do it is a major violation. Bring your pilots home, now," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, before unleashing a sweary rant about the two countries to reporters.
When asked about reports Iran had broken the ceasefire and Israel's response, Trump said, "I'm not sure they did it intentionally. They couldn't reign people back. I don't like the fact that Israel went out this morning, and I'm going to see if I can stop it. As soon as I get away from you, I'm going to see if I can stop it."
He added: "We have two countries that have fought for so long and so hard that they don't know what the f*** they're doing."
Since then, the ceasefire seems to be tentatively holding. The US waded into the conflict with its own strikes against three of Iran's nuclear facilities: Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordo.
Using 125 US aircraft and so-called 'Bunker Buster' bombs, the attack is said by Trump to have done significant damage to Iran's nuclear capabilities, with the President calling them "obliterated'.
However, a recently leaked intelligence report from the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency has claimed that the strikes have not done anywhere near as much damage as Trump claimed and only set Iran back a few months from developing a nuclear weapon.
An expert speaking to The Telegraph echoed these sentiments, claiming that it is likely Iran had far more supplies to create nuclear weapons hidden away.
"I'm sure they have a hidden place somewhere with some hundreds, if not thousands of centrifuge[s] and they have material all there in several places all over Iran,' said Sara Shine, who previously worked within the Israeli military for three decades, and is reported to be an expert on Iran's nuclear programme.
She added: 'They cannot do anything now, tomorrow, but in the future, they have all the capabilities [to build a bomb]".
Whilst she didn't doubt the US strikes - dubbed Operation Midnight - did serious damage to the three targeted facilities, she believes that further caches will likely exist.
"The [known] sites in themselves, for the time being, are not a lot of threat", the former research director for Mossad was quoted as saying. "The problem is, as you know, the material and the advanced centrifuges that I'm sure they have somewhere".
However, another source said that whilst it was likely the expert was right that further enriched uranium is kept in other places by Iran, the facilities to further enrich it to weapons-grade, or indeed build a weapon had been "significantly damaged".
Iran responded to the US strikes with what has been called a carefully choreographed attack on a US military base in Qatar. Advanced warning was given of the strike, and there were no injuries - with some experts claiming that the restrained measure allowed Iran to save face, but also provided an "off-ramp" for de-escalation.
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