US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth calls US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites at the weekend "historically successful"
Speaking at a Pentagon news conference, Hegseth cites various assessments, including from the CIA and the UN's nuclear watchdog
Hegseth also attacks the media, after a leaked intelligence report earlier this week suggested the strikes' impact may have been limited
The update comes after Iran's supreme leader said the US "failed to achieve anything significant" with the nuclear strikes
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also claims victory over Israel – and says Iran delivered a "heavy slap" to the US by attacking a US base in Qatar
So has Iran's nuclear programme been destroyed, or merely set back? We still don't know, writes our correspondent Frank Gardner
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Hegseth cites foreign Iran attack assessments, pushes back against press
Edited by Nathan Williams and Jenna Moon, with reporting by Ghoncheh Habibiazad
We've heard from both Iran and the US today, with updates mostly focusing on last weekend's US strikes:
US defends attack "success": At a news conference earlier, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth hailed the US strikes on Iranian nuclear targets as a "historic success". As our correspondent points out, he was trying to push back against a leaked preliminary intelligence assessment that questioned the strikes' impact – and attacked the media for not backing Trump enough.
Iran says US gained nothing: In a televised speech earlier – the first time he'd been seen in more than a week – Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the US attacks "failed to achieve anything significant". He said the US strikes were never about nuclear issues, but they just want Iran to "surrender".
They can't both be right: As our security correspondent Frank Gardner writes, the two narratives from Khamenei and Hegseth are at odds with each other. Yes the US weapons hit their targets, but we simply don't know whether Iran's suspected nuclear has actually been destroyed, he writes.
Cut ties: Iran has officially passed a law ending cooperation with the global nuclear watchdog – although the International Atomic Energy Agency says Tehran is yet to notify it of any change.
The US released these annotated images earlier today, showing how its military carried out the attack on Iran's Fordo nuclear site.
It shows two ventilation shafts at the complex that were the target of the attack, and their development from 2008 to 2025, post-strike.
It also lays out a wider diagram of the site, and an internal look at the construction of the shafts. Six bombs were used on each of the two shafts.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, US President Donald Trump slams what he calls "fake news reporters" from CNN and the New York Times and says they should be fired "immediately".
Trump accuses them of being "BAD PEOPLE WITH EVIL INTENTIONS!!!".
Trump has repeatedly attacked CNN and the New York Times for its reporting of a leaked preliminary intelligence assessment that questioned the effectiveness of the US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites.
Since then the Trump administration has continued to push back against those reports, with the Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth today insisting the strikes were "historically successful" in his news conference, during which he cited different agencies on the damage caused by the US raids.
Soroush Negahdari
BBC Monitoring
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Iran dealt 'heavy blow' to the US, Khamenei says in a televised statement
Khamenei's address ended a week-long public silence that had sparked speculation about his health and authority, particularly following a two-day silence after the US-announced Iran-Israel ceasefire.
His absence and silence during other recent critical events – including US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities and Iran's retaliatory strikes on the US base in Qatar – had raised questions over his role and control in national decision-making.
Reports suggested that security threats had led Khamenei to be "sheltering in a bunker", limiting his communications. Mehdi Fazaeli, a senior member of his office, acknowledged during a TV interview on Tuesday that Khamenei was in a safe place, though no further details were disclosed.
Until shortly before his televised address today, social media was abuzz with memes, conspiracy theories, and criticism, with some alleging a strategic silence to avoid endorsing controversial actions.
Despite his reappearance, his perceived weakened demeanour and the unusual format of recent addresses continue to fuel speculation.
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Hegseth cites foreign Iran attack assessments, pushes back against press
During his press briefing earlier, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth backed up his update by listing assessments of the US attack on Iran.
These included from the Israeli Defence Forces and the Defense Intelligence Agency. He then used these to attack the press – watch some of it above.
Imogen James
Live reporter
After the reports that Iran has approved a bill suspending cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global nuclear watchdog says it hasn't been informed of this by Iran.
"As of now, the IAEA has not received an official communication from Iran on this matter," it confirmed to the BBC.
A suspension of cooperation would mean IAEA inspectors would be banned from accessing Iranian nuclear sites until certain conditions are met.
Ghoncheh Habibiazad
BBC Persian
File photo showing Saeed Izadi (centre) with former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (R) and former Iranian army chief Mohammed Bagheri
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has confirmed that senior military commander Saeed Izadi was killed in Israeli strikes, IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported.
Izadi was a senior commander of the IRGC's extraterritorial Quds Force and was responsible for coordination with Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.
There is no mention in the IRGC's statement about when and where he was killed.
The IDF announced Izadi’s death on 21 June, and accused him of being an architect of the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.
The UK sanctioned Izadi back in 2023,, external in response to "unprecedented threats" from Tehran to "peace and security across the Middle East" and "plots to kill individuals on UK soil". He was also sanctioned by the US in 2019 for allegedly providing millions of dollars to Hamas.Soroush Negahdari
BBC Monitoring
Damage seen near tunnel entrances at Iran's Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre after it was hit by the US
Iran's constitutional watchdog has officially approved a bill mandating the suspension of cooperation with the global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The bill bars IAEA inspectors from accessing Iranian nuclear sites until specific conditions are met. These conditions include recognition of Iran's right to uranium enrichment under Article 4 of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The bill has already been approved by Iran's parliament, and this approval from the Guardian Council – a body of clerics and jurists – means it is officially a law now.
Final authority, including how and when it will be implemented, lies with Iran's Supreme National Security Council and Iran’s supreme leader.
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Watch: Pentagon shows test video of 'bunker busters' used in Iran
As we explained earlier, today's briefing by the US on their strikes on Iran was incredibly detailed.
For part of it, the press in the room were shown a video by Gen Dan Caine. The clip showed a test of one of the bombs used in the strikes. 
Frank Gardner
Security correspondent
No surprises there then: the Pentagon briefing we have just watched is directly at odds with the claims made by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier today.
The US, said Iran's leader, who has only just emerged from hiding, had "failed to achieve anything significant" in its attacks on Iran's key nuclear facilities. Yet those attacks, specifically the one on the most important site at Fordo, were "a historic success" according to the US Defence Secretary, destroying or "obliterating" Iran’s nuclear programme.
They can't both be right.
So let’s break this down. Did those 12 massive US bunker-busting bombs, the GBU-57s, all hit their targets in the mountain at Fordo? Yes.
Were they the culmination of years of painstaking study by the Pentagon on how best to attack Iran's deeply buried uranium enrichment programme? Yes. Did they choose the best line of attack – the ventilation shafts – then detonate at the right depth to achieve maximum effect? Yes.
But that's not the whole story.
We simply don't know, beyond conjecture, what state those centrifuges are in, down there in that subterranean hall, because neither US nor UN inspectors have been down there. Crucially, we don't know where the missing 408kg of highly enriched uranium (HEU) has gone to.
And we don't know – because this was a Pentagon briefing, not an intelligence assessment – how much of a nuclear knowledge base Iran retains that could soon, potentially be applied to restarting its programme in secret.
So in short, from a purely tactical point of view, the B2 pilots who flew that extraordinary 37 hour mission to drop those 13-tonne bunker-busting bombs fulfilled their mission to the letter.
But when it comes to the question of whether Iran's suspected nuclear programme has actually been destroyed (as the US claims), or merely set back, the jury is still very much still out.
The US president has also just addressed rumours that some of Iran's highly enriched uranium was removed from the Fordo nuclear site before it was bombed by the US.
This was also denied by Hegseth during his press conference.
"Nothing was taken out of [the] facility," Trump writes on social media, adding it "would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!"
Instead, he suggests that "cars and small trucks at the site" belonged to "concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the [ventilation] shafts".
As we reported, Gen Caine, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the US targeted the nuclear site in Fordo by dropping bombs down its ventilation shafts.
We've just heard reaction from US President Donald Trump, who calls his defence secretary's press conference "one of the greatest, most professional… news conferences" he has ever seen.
In a social media post, he goes on to suggest that the "Fake News should fire everyone involved in this Witch Hunt, and apologize to our great warriors, and everyone else!"
This appears to be part of his continuing push back against a leaked preliminary intelligence assessment that questioned the effectiveness of the raids.
Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent
Battle damage assessments take time – time to review intelligence reports from both surveillance and human sources, time to gather information and time to reach conclusions with some level of confidence.
The pace of American politics moves much more quickly.
Trump administration officials are pushing back hard against the leaked preliminary report suggesting a less than optimal result from Saturday night’s airstrikes because they know it doesn’t take long for the public opinion in a major event like this to harden.
If American voters conclude now that the US attacks weren’t effective, it will be hard for the White House to change their minds weeks or months later.
Polls indicate that Donald Trump’s popularity has sagged recently and that Americans were sceptical about American military involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict going into Saturday night.
A successful military operation has the potential to give this president a boost if the White House can convince the public that Trump took decisive action, that produced a positive result. But the window on such opportunities closes fast.
Chris Partridge
BBC News weapons analyst
The Pentagon gave an unusually detailed description of the B-2 attacks on Fordo with the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), and showed various pictures of the strike scene.
They targeted two air ventilation shafts.
For each shaft, General Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described how one MOP blew off a concrete cap covering the shaft, before five more MOPs – travelling at more than 1,000 feet per second – went down the same shaft, causing extensive blast and pressure damage.
He added: “Weapons all guided to intended targets and aim points and functioned as designed (ie exploded). Tailing jets said it was the brightest explosion they had ever seen. Male and female aviators were on this mission.”
We know that six B-2 bombers were involved at Fordo – each dropping two GBU-57s. The strike package was supported by F-22 and F-35 5th generation stealth jets – plus other 4th generation fighter aircraft.
On battle damage assessment, Gen Caine said the USAF was not involved, as that was for the intelligence teams. "We don't mark our own homework."Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth took the lectern at the Pentagon briefing room with two goals.
He wanted to present evidence of the success of the American attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities and push back against a preliminary defence intelligence assessment that suggested the strikes were less effective.
And he wanted to berate the American media and paint their coverage of that report as unpatriotic and disrespectful to the “brave men and women” in the US military.
Hegseth ticked through a variety of other intelligence information – from US sources as well as the Israelis – that he said concluded that the Iranian nuclear programme was set back years from the attacks.
“You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated, choose your words,” he said.
The American media weren’t reporting this sufficiently, he said, because they were cheering against the president and hoping that he failed.
“It’s in your DNA.”
The morning’s briefing was the Trump administration’s attempt to wrest back the narrative around Saturday night’s attacks – and take a few mores swipes at journalists in the process.
There's a question now on whether highly enriched uranium had been moved out of the Fordo nuclear sites before the American missiles struck the Iranian base.
This is followed up by another asking whether Caine has been pressured politically to give a better assessment of what happened.
"No, I have not," Caine replies, adding that his job is to offer a range of options to the president and then follow the orders given.
"I've never been pressured by the president or the secretary to do anything other than tell them exactly what I'm thinking," he says.
Hegseth then steps in and responds to the question of whether uranium had been moved, saying: "There is nothing to suggest that we didn't hit exactly what we wanted to hit".
Pressed further on this, the defence secretary says the US is "watching every single aspect", but refuses to offer more detail.
Nomia Iqbal
North America correspondent
A little earlier, the chairman showed a video that appears to show the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) destroying the entrances to the Fordo site – but again nothing definitive so far that the sites have been destroyed to the point where Iran can’t revive its nuclear programme.
When asked by reporters if he’d use the word obliterated – the general wouldn’t confirm.
Hegseth answers, angrily rebuking the press, and saying “[anyone] with eyes and a brain can recognise” the destruction.Nomia Iqbal
North America correspondent
What is somewhat odd is that Hegseth is playing down intelligence (albeit preliminary) from his own department and preferring to cite everyone else.
That even includes the UN – “no friend of the US or Israel” – he said. He highlights assessments by Israel and the IAEA.
But the defence secretary is doing the job he was hired to do – cheer the military and Trump whilst attacking the press.
In contrast, General Dan Caine from the Joint Chiefs of Staff has sidestepped Hegseth’s angry politics, focusing on the logistics and giving us a vivid picture of what the military achieved.
He says the oldest soldier on the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, where Iran retaliated with strikes, was 28 years old and the youngest was 21.
Caine says all US weapons that hit the Fordo nuclear site reached their target and exploded.
Pilots in the jets trailing behind described it as "the brightest explosion I've ever seen, it literally looked like daylight".
Caine praises the bomber crews involved and says when they landed home they were greeted by "incredible cheers" from their families. "Tears were flowing."
And he finishes by saying he "could not be more proud". US forces remain on a "high state of readiness in the region" and he warns American adversaries that teams are continuing to study targets.Nomia Iqbal
North America correspondent
Unsurprisingly Pete Hegseth has given a robust, somewhat angry, and emotional defence of President Trump and the US’s mission in Iran.
He has lashed out at the media for challenging the narrative and accuses them of "searching for scandals and missing moments".
He says he’s fighting for the dignity of great American patriots, implying not going with the administration’s narrative is somehow a betrayal.
He also accuses reporters of “fawning” over the leaked preliminary intelligence briefing which he said was a “low confidence” report.
His performance is not that different to his previous role as a weekend Fox News host where he did a lot of fawning over President Trump, which is why his critics say he got the defence job in the first place.
“Badly damaged”, “severely damaged” “set back years”, “effectively destroyed” – Pete Hegseth quoted many organisations including the UN (often dismissed by the Trump administration), as examples of why he says the nuclear sites have been destroyed.
But it feels like the goal posts keep changing. Originally we were told it was "obliterated".
What Hegseth hasn’t said so far: are the sites destroyed to a point where Iran can’t revive its nuclear programme?
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