Latest news with #IranNuclear
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump dismisses reports US is weighing up to $30 billion civilian nuclear deal for Iran
By Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday dismissed media reports that said his administration had discussed possibly helping Iran access as much as $30 billion to build a civilian-energy-producing nuclear program. CNN reported on Thursday and NBC News reported on Friday that the Trump administration in recent days had explored possible economic incentives for Iran in return for its government halting uranium enrichment. The reports cited sources. CNN cited officials as saying that several proposals were floated and were preliminary. "Who in the Fake News Media is the SleazeBag saying that 'President Trump wants to give Iran $30 Billion to build non-military Nuclear facilities.' Never heard of this ridiculous idea," Trump wrote on Truth Social late on Friday, calling the reports a "HOAX." Since April, Iran and the U.S. have held indirect talks aimed at finding a new diplomatic solution regarding Iran's nuclear program. Tehran says its program is peaceful and Washington says it wants to ensure Iran cannot build a nuclear weapon. Trump, earlier this week, announced a ceasefire between U.S. ally Israel and its regional rival Iran to halt a war that began on June 13 when Israel attacked Iran. The Israel-Iran conflict had raised alarms in a region already on edge since the start of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023. The U.S. struck Iran's nuclear sites over the last weekend and Iran targeted a U.S. base in Qatar on Monday in retaliation, before Trump announced the ceasefire. Israel is the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons and said its war against Iran aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons. Iran is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Israel is not. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, which carries out inspections in Iran, has said it has "no credible indication" of an active, coordinated weapons programme in Iran.
Reuters
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Trump dismisses reports US is weighing up to $30 bln civilian nuclear deal for Iran
WASHINGTON, June 27 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday dismissed media reports that said his administration had discussed possibly helping Iran access as much as $30 billion to build a civilian-energy-producing nuclear program. CNN reported on Thursday and NBC News reported on Friday that the Trump administration in recent days had explored possible economic incentives for Iran in return for its government halting uranium enrichment. The reports cited sources. CNN cited officials as saying that several proposals were floated and were preliminary. "Who in the Fake News Media is the SleazeBag saying that 'President Trump wants to give Iran $30 Billion to build non-military Nuclear facilities.' Never heard of this ridiculous idea," Trump wrote on Truth Social late on Friday, calling the reports a "HOAX." Since April, Iran and the U.S. have held indirect talks aimed at finding a new diplomatic solution regarding Iran's nuclear program. Tehran says its program is peaceful and Washington says it wants to ensure Iran cannot build a nuclear weapon. Trump, earlier this week, announced a ceasefire between U.S. ally Israel and its regional rival Iran to halt a war that began on June 13 when Israel attacked Iran. The Israel-Iran conflict had raised alarms in a region already on edge since the start of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023. The U.S. struck Iran's nuclear sites over the last weekend and Iran targeted a U.S. base in Qatar on Monday in retaliation, before Trump announced the ceasefire. Israel is the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons and said its war against Iran aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons. Iran is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Israel is not. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, which carries out inspections in Iran, has said it has "no credible indication" of an active, coordinated weapons programme in Iran.
Times
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Times
Israeli spies ‘in Iran for years' before war on nuclear sites
Israel's spies infiltrated the heart of Iran's missile and nuclear programmes to wage years of covert intelligence-gathering and assess that Tehran's weapons-building infrastructure was far more extensive than previously thought. Leaked intelligence documents shared with western allies, including the US and Britain, and seen by The Times, appeared to reveal the full extent of Iran's nuclear and missile ambitions. The conclusion of Israel's spy agency, Mossad, as well as other military intelligence arms, was that the capability, knowledge and components of the regime's development was racing ahead and it was far more extensive than just the main sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. An intelligence source told The Times on Friday that Israel had been monitoring multiple locations through intelligence agents for years, with each location having 'boots on the ground beforehand'. Israel began readying its attack on Iran from as early as 2010, based on intelligence about its accelerating weapons programme. The documents were leaked amid conflicting reports over the damage to nuclear sites after the 12-day war. While President Trump said the Fordow site had been obliterated by so-called 'bunker buster' bombs, some experts suggest that residual stocks of enriched uranium and manufactured centrifuges may still be able to produce a nuclear weapon in the future. America also mounted attacks on Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites. Israel's military operation was based on intelligence that identified the production of centrifuges, instruments used to enrich uranium, at three sites in Tehran and Isfahan. All were attacked and destroyed by Israel during the conflict. The attacks also focused on seven separate components in the Natanz facility, Iran's main enrichment site. Intelligence officers used spies on the ground to map the layout of Natanz, identifying overground and underground buildings which included piping, feeding and solidification of uranium. Israel also attacked the electricity infrastructure, a research and development building, the transformer station, and the generator structure to back up the electric grid. The attack also hit ventilation and cooling ducts. As well as Natanz, Israel's reconnaissance infiltrated, attacked and destroyed a facility in Isfahan, the Nur and Mogdeh sites for calculation and labs, the Shariati military site, and the large hangar at Shahid Meisami which manufactured the plastic explosives used for testing nuclear weapons, as well as other advanced materials and chemicals. Many of these sites were set up by the SPND, an umbrella organisation led by Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, an Iranian nuclear physicist who was assassinated in 2020 with a satellite-controlled machine gun — allegedly by Israel. The documents also pointed to the infiltration of the headquarters of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) which was attacked in the later days of the war, and of nuclear sites such as the Sanjarian, which developed components involved in the creation of nuclear weapons, according to Israel. By the end of 2024, Iran had moved from the research stage of weaponisation to creating an advanced explosive and radiation system, running experiments and leading to nuclear capability 'within weeks', according to the report. The scale and detail of the assessment points to years of intelligence gathering which may still be going on. 'You know they have guys that go in there after the hit, and they said it was total obliteration,' Trump told reporters at the Nato summit in the Hague — suggesting that spies may yet remain on Iranian soil. The depth of Israel's infiltration was revealed as early as 2010, when an Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated in broad daylight. Four others have since been assassinated. However, it was brought to the fore more recently with the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political chief, in July last year, when Mossad hired Iranian security agents to place explosive devices in several rooms of a guesthouse in Tehran. Israeli intelligence also reportedly raised the prospect a few weeks ago of assassinating Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — something Trump made clear he was against. Posting on Truth Social on Friday, Trump responded to Khamenei's recent claims Iran had given the US a 'big slap in the face', with the US leader saying he 'saved' the Supreme Leader from 'a very ugly and Ignominious death'. 'Why would the so-called 'Supreme Leader', Ayatollah Ali Khamenei… say so blatantly and foolishly that he won the War with Israel, when he knows his statement is a lie,' Trump said, adding he has 'dropped' work around sanctions relief in negotiations with Tehran as a result. The intelligence documents seen by The Times show that Iran was aiming to produce dozens of long-range, surface-to-surface missiles a month, leading to up to 1,000 a year with a reported aim of a stock of 8,000 missiles. Experts estimate Iran began the war with some 2,000 to 2,500 ballistic missiles. Agents in Iran visited every workshop and factory that were later attacked, enabling Israel to target 'the entire industry that supported the manufacturing of large amounts of missiles', according to an intelligence source cited in the documents, which added that the sites were both military and civilian in nature. One such site was Muad Tarkivi Noyad in Rasht, located on the coast of the Caspian Sea, which operated under the auspices of the Iranian Aerospace Industry Organisation. According to Israeli intelligence, this produced all the carbon fibre needed to produce missiles. It too was destroyed by Israeli bombs. MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES/AP The dozens of locations and sites attacked in the last two weeks, including the Parchin military complex 30km southeast of Tehran, as well as sites for guidance, navigation and control of missiles and the production of warheads and engines needed to fly the missiles, reveal a complex production system that took decades to establish. The scale of the infiltration of the Iranian regime has only served to increase paranoia in Tehran. Over the course of the 12 days of hostility, Iran arrested dozens of people suspected of spying. Efforts to hunt moles began after the assassination of Haniyeh, with IRGC members suspecting one another of security breaches. That was illustrated on Friday when Mossad, in a post on X, warned Iranians to stay away from IRGC officials and vehicles belonging to the regime. Israel's methods of recruitment, including that of Iranian insiders, is a guarded secret, but has even prompted a popular spy thriller series, Tehran. One of Mossad's most famous heists within Iran was the seizure of Iranian nuclear archives from a giant safe in 2018. The top-secret documents were were later used as a basis to convince Trump to pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal. Within the agreement, Iran would limit its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. • How badly damaged are Iran's nuclear sites and missiles? Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, admitted on Thursday evening that the Israeli and American campaigns had done 'excessive and serious' damage to the country's nuclear facilities, without giving further details. Araghchi added that there had been 'no agreement' on upcoming nuclear talks with Washington. 'For decades, Israel has been observing activities inside Iran,' said Dr Efrat Sopher, an Iranian-Israeli analyst who chairs the Ezri Centre for Iran and Gulf States Research at the University of Haifa UK. 'Mossad has played a pivotal role in the success in thwarting the Iranian threat, where its successful operations vis-à-vis Iran and its proxies will be chronicled in the history books.'
LBCI
8 hours ago
- Politics
- LBCI
Trump insists Iran 'wants to meet' for talks
U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that Iran wants to return to negotiations on its nuclear program, a week after its main uranium enrichment facility and other sites were hit with U.S. air strikes. "So Iran wants to meet. As you know, their sites were obliterated, their very evil nuclear sites," the Republican leader told reporters at the White House without elaborating. Iran's top diplomat said Wednesday that there was "no plan" for new negotiations. AFP
Asharq Al-Awsat
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Israel Killed 30 Iranian Security Chiefs and 11 Nuclear Scientists, Israeli Official Says
Israel killed more than 30 senior security officials and 11 senior nuclear scientists to deliver a major blow to Iran's nuclear ambitions, a senior Israeli military official said on Friday in summarizing Israel's 12-day air war with Iran. In the United States, an independent expert said a review of commercial satellite imagery showed only a small number of the approximately 30 Iranian missiles that penetrated Israel's air defenses managed to hit any militarily significant targets. "Iran has yet to produce missiles that demonstrate great accuracy," Decker Eveleth, an associate research analyst at the CNA Corporation specializing in satellite imagery, told Reuters. In Israel, the senior military official said Israel's June 13 opening strike on Iran severely damaged its aerial defenses and destabilized its ability to respond in the critical early hours of the conflict. Israel's air force struck over 900 targets and the military deeply damaged Iran's missile production during the war that ended with a US-brokered ceasefire, the official said. "The Iranian nuclear project suffered a major blow: The regime's ability to enrich uranium to 90% was neutralized for a prolonged period. Its current ability to produce a nuclear weapon core has been neutralized," the official said. Iran, which denies trying to build nuclear weapons, retaliated against the strikes with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites and cities. Iran said it forced the end of the war by penetrating Israeli defenses. Iranian authorities said 627 people were killed in Iran, where the extent of the damage could not be independently confirmed because of tight restrictions on the media. Israeli authorities said 28 people were killed in Israel. Eveleth, the independent US expert, said Iran's missile forces were not accurate enough to destroy small military targets like US-made F-35 jet fighters in their shelters. "Because of this the only targets they can hit with regularity are large cities or industrial targets like the refinery at Haifa," he told Reuters. Iranian missile salvos, which were limited by Israeli airstrikes in Iran, did not have the density to achieve high rates of destruction, he wrote on X. "At the current level of performance, there is effectively nothing stopping Israel from conducting the same operation in the future with similar results," he wrote. In a statement on Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had directed the military to draft plans to safeguard air superiority over Iran, prevent nuclear development and missile production, and address Iran's support for militant operations against Israel. Israel's military Chief of Staff Lieutenant General, Eyal Zamir, said on Friday the outcome in Iran could help advance Israeli objectives against the Iranian-backed Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza Strip. Zamir told troops in Gaza an Israeli ground operation, known as "Gideon's Chariots," would in the near future achieve its goal of greater control of the Palestinian enclave and present options to Israel's government for further action.
