{"id":154617,"date":"2025-06-25T06:32:53","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T06:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ceasefire-in-place-but-iran-nuclear-program-may-have-survived-live-updates-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T06:32:53","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T06:32:53","slug":"ceasefire-in-place-but-iran-nuclear-program-may-have-survived-live-updates-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ceasefire-in-place-but-iran-nuclear-program-may-have-survived-live-updates-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Ceasefire in place, but Iran nuclear program may have survived: Live updates – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> tried to keep a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran in place Tuesday as reports emerged indicating the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend was not as successful as he initially claimed.
Trump chastised Israel for accusing Iran of truce violations and ordering new strikes, saying he was “not happy” with either country as he spoke to reporters while leaving Washington for a NATO summit in Europe. Trump said he did not want to see a regime change in Iran and strongly criticized U.S. ally Israel<\/a>, saying the nation needs “to calm down.”
His fiery rhetoric came one day after a stunning series of developments roiling the Middle East<\/a> led to a ceasefire proclaimed by Trump \u2212 and accepted by Israel and Iran \u2212 in a 12-day conflict that drew in the United States, which launched strikes on three nuclear sites<\/a> in Iran on Saturday.
That attack featured 14 “bunker-buster” bombs<\/a> dropped on three facilities, but it only delayed Iran’s nuclear program<\/a> by a few months because the 30,000-pound weapons did not reach deep enough to destroy the underground installations, according to a\u00a0Pentagon intelligence assessment.
After seeing the assessment, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona told USA TODAY the bombed nuclear sites are “degraded,” the same word the Trump administration used in relaying the strikes’ impact to the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Trump said Saturday that “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a social media post Tuesday that the assessment “is flat-out wrong<\/a>.”
Developments:<\/strong>
\u220e In a sign that the ceasefire is holding up so far, the Israeli military lifted restrictions on gatherings, workplaces, and schools, the Times of Israel reported<\/a>. Ben Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv has also returned to full operation.
\u220e Iran plans to reopen its airspace Tuesday night, Reuters reported, citing the state-affiliated Nour News.
\u220e Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on the X platform<\/a> that he spoke with his American counterpart, Pete Hegseth<\/a>, and that “I emphasized that Israel will respect the ceasefire \u2212 as long as the other side does.”
Deeming the information lawmakers receive from intelligence agencies as “credible,” Kelly said such assessments are \u201cnot always perfect\u201d and can change, but he added: \u201cThey spend a lot of time and effort in trying to provide us with unvarnished information.\u201d
Kelly pushed back on Trump\u2019s contention that the bombed sites are \u201ccompletely and totally obliterated,” a comment the president made in a televised address Saturday. “That\u2019s not the case,\u201d Kelly said.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, told USA TODAY he hopes the sites were destroyed, but said even if the intelligence report is correct, his opinion of the mission wouldn’t change. \u201cIt probably raises questions of what further actions are going to have to be taken to deny them that capability,\u201d Johnson said.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, said he was at the White House on Monday and spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. \u201cThey\u2019re very comfortable they destroyed Fordow and the other (facility),\u201d Scott said.
\u2212- Zac Anderson<\/em>
Trump said Tuesday he thought both Israel and Iran had violated the ceasefire agreement<\/a>, though possibly not intentionally. “In all fairness, Israel unloaded a lot, and now I hear Israel just went out because they felt it was violated by one rocket that didn’t land anywhere. That’s not what we want, I’ll tell you. And I’m telling you, I’m not happy about that, Israel, either,” Trump said.
Later, posting on Truth Social from Air Force One en route to The Hague, Netherlands, for a summit of NATO leaders<\/a>, Trump wrote that “ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly ‘Plane Wave’ to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect!”
Trump added that “IRAN WILL NEVER REBUILD THEIR NUCLEAR FACILITIES!”
But Trump, while talking to reporters, also warned that regime change in Iran could lead to chaos, adding, “I’d like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible.”
Trump’s Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff said on Tuesday that talks between the United States and Iran were “promising” and that Washington was hopeful for a long-term peace deal.
“We are already talking to each other, not just directly but also through interlocutors. I think that the conversations are promising. We are hopeful that we can have a long-term peace agreement that resurrects Iran,” Witkoff said in an interview on Fox News.
“Now it\u2019s for us to sit down with the Iranians and get to a comprehensive peace agreement, and I am very confident that we are going to achieve that,” he added.
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.
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog chief\u00a0said on June 24 that he had written to Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi to propose a meeting, urging cooperation after the ceasefire was announced.
\u201cResuming cooperation with the (International Atomic Energy Agency) is key to a successful diplomatic agreement to finally resolve the dispute over Iran\u2019s nuclear activities,\u201d Director General Rafael Grossi\u00a0said in a statement<\/a>.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said its inspectors are “ready to start working as soon as possible” to verify the inventories of nuclear material. The agency added that inspectors had already verified more than 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% a few days before Israel\u2019s air strikes began on June 13.
Iran has denied seeking nuclear weapons. According to Reuters, an Iranian lawmaker said on June 24 that Grossi\u00a0should not be allowed to enter Iran.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy commission in Iran’s parliament, said cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency should be suspended, the Iranian Students’ News Agency reported. The same commission approved a day earlier the general outline of a bill meant to fully suspend Tehran’s cooperation with the nuclear watchdog.
Federal agents arrested 11 Iranians living in the U.S. over the past few days, Department of Homeland Security officials announced on Tuesday.\u00a0
Almost all the arrests were made on Sunday after U.S. military planes bombed key Iranian nuclear sites<\/a>. President Donald Trump<\/a> has said he ordered the strikes to put a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the “world’s number one state sponsor of terror.”
The arrests also come as some Americans fear violence<\/a> in the U.S. amid the conflict with Iran. Mayors from New York City<\/a> to Los Angeles<\/a> have said that they are watching for any threats to public safety.\u00a0
Among the people arrested, officials said<\/a>, were: Mehran Makari Saheli, a 56-year-old convicted of illegal firearm possession and former member of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; Ribvar Karimi, a former Iranian army sniper who failed to adjust his immigration status; and Yousef Mehridehno, who was labeled by Homeland Security as a \u201csuspected terrorist\u201d<\/a> who lied on a visa application.
Karimi had an Islamic Republic of Iran Army identification card in his possession when he was arrested, federal agents said.
\u201cWe have been saying we are getting the worst of the worst out \u2014 and we are,\u201d said Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. \u201cWe don\u2019t wait until a military operation to execute; we proactively deliver on President Trump<\/a>\u2019s mandate to secure the homeland.\u201d
An Iranian American group slammed the apparent crackdown in light of the war, saying the White House had \u201cweaponized\u201d immigration authorities to go after political enemies.
\u201cWe are deeply concerned that the Department of Homeland Security will respond to geopolitical tensions abroad with racial profiling and efforts to undermine the civil liberties of individuals of Iranian heritage in the United States,\u201d said Ryan Costello, policy director for the National Iranian American Council<\/a>, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that advocates for improving American relations with Iran. \u201cThat is wrong and un-American. It’s threats and legitimate intelligence that need to drive these kind of enforcement actions, not security theater.”
It\u2019s fairly rare for Iranians living in the U.S. to run afoul of immigration authorities, data shows. Of nearly 113,500 people arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities in 2024, 68 were from Iran. 47 of the people arrested then had criminal convictions; the rest had immigration violations, according to federal data.
The number of Iranians arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in recent days amounts to 16% of the total number of Iranian nationals arrested in all of fiscal year 2024, according to federal data.
Trump<\/a> says U.S. bombers\u00a0“obliterated” Iranian nuclear sites<\/a>, but a key question remains unanswered \u2212 where’s the uranium<\/a>? Trump’s ceasefire announcement<\/a>\u00a0Monday came two days after his administration said it destroyed\u00a0three of Iran’s major nuclear facilities<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
Hassan Abedini, deputy political director for Iran’s state broadcaster, told reporters after the U.S. bombing that Iran “didn’t suffer a major blow because the materials had already been taken out.”
Iran had ample time to move the stockpiles between Israel’s initial attack and the U.S. bombing of the nuclear sites. Satellite images from Maxar Technology captured vehicle activity at Fordow in the days leading up to the U.S. strikes, including a line of cargo trucks parked outside.
“Significant nuclear materials remain unaccounted for,” said Kelsey Davenport, the Arms Control Association’s director for nonproliferation policy. David Albright, a former United Nations nuclear weapons inspector, told CNN on Tuesday that “our understanding” is that some of the uranium stockpiles were taken away by Iran, “and we don\u2019t know where they are.”
What carries more weight, the president’s role as commander in chief or Congress’ constitutional power to declare war?
The Senate may vote on that issue<\/a> as early as Thursday as lawmakers debate whether Trump had the authority to order Saturday’s attack on Iran without first getting congressional approval. The measure was put forth by Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who said last week the U.S. engaging in war with Iran “would be a catastrophic blunder for this country.\u201d
Republicans control the Senate and are expected to defeat the measure, but two similar proposals are pending in the House, where at least three GOP representatives have expressed disapproval of Trump’s unilateral decision to drop bombs on Iran’s nuclear facilities. A vote on those proposals may not take place for weeks.
\u2212 Bart Jansen<\/em>
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, blasted the Trump administration for postponing a scheduled classified briefing about bombing Iran. The briefing was moved from Tuesday to Thursday.
\u201cThis last-minute postponement of our briefing is outrageous. It’s evasive. It’s derelict,\u201d Schumer told reporters at the Capitol. \u201cThere is a legal obligation for the administration to inform Congress about precisely what is happening.\u201d
Schumer questioned why the administration canceled the briefing, given concerns about how much of Iran\u2019s nuclear material was destroyed and how much escaped.
\u2212 Bart Jansen<\/em>
Trump posted a screenshot<\/a> of a message from\u00a0NATO\u00a0Secretary General Mark Rutte congratulating Trump for his efforts in Iran and getting NATO\u00a0allies to agree to spend at least 5% of their GDP on defense. NATO\u00a0officials confirmed the message was sent to Trump by Rutte on Tuesday.
“Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do. It makes us all safer,” the message read. “You are flying into another big success in The Hague this evening.”
Rutte added that Trump “will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done. Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win.”
Rutte is a former prime minister of the Netherlands, where he led a center-right political party and developed a strong relationship with Trump.
The latest Middle East clash has created a sense of unease<\/a> among some Americans, likely mindful of the long-contentious relationship between the U.S. and Iran.
In a Reuters\/Ipsos poll<\/a>\u00a0unveiled Tuesday, 79% of American adult respondents said they worried “Iran may target U.S. civilians in response to the U.S. airstrikes.” Law enforcement agencies across the country have cautioned of\u00a0increased threats to public safety<\/a>,\u00a0and a\u00a0Department of Homeland Security bulletin<\/a>\u00a0warned of a heightened risk of “violent extremists” plotting cyber or terrorist attacks.
Catherine Wagoner, a kindergarten teacher from Boston waiting for her train home at New York’s Penn Station, said she felt less safe traveling since the attacks in Iran. \u201cBeing in New York feels more of a threat \u2013 more of a target,\u201d she said.
\u2212 Christopher Cann and Michael Collins<\/em>\u00a0
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> issued a statement<\/a> outlining Iran’s alleged violations. The statement said Israel “forcefully attacked in the heart of Tehran” at 3 a.m. Tuesday, four hours before the ceasefire was set to begin. Israel eliminated hundreds of security forces, the statement said.
Shortly before the ceasefire was due to take effect, Iran launched a barrage of missiles, one of which killed four Israelis in Be’er Sheva, the statement said. The ceasefire took effect at 7 a.m. local time, and at 7:06 Iran launched one missile at Israeli territory, and two additional missiles at 10:25, according to the statement.
“These missiles were either intercepted or fell in open areas, and caused neither casualties nor damage,” Israel said, adding that its Air Force then retaliated by destroying a radar installation near Tehran.
“Pursuant to the conversation between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israel has refrained from additional attacks,” the statement said.
Leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which includes several European countries, the United States and Canada, are gathering in The Hague for their annual summit. The war in Ukraine and the amount of defense funds European nations provide are among the topics. But the clash between Israel and Iran was expected to cast a long shadow over the proceedings.
As he walked away from reporters, a visibly angry Trump told a reporter<\/a>: “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— they’re doing. You understand that?”
Trump arrived in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam at 7:36 p.m. local time.
The U.S. intelligence community has been consistent: It does not believe Iran has been building a nuclear weapon. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said as much when she testified to Congress about Iran\u2019s nuclear program in March.
U.S. spy agencies, Gabbard said, \u201ccontinue to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.”
Trump and Netanyahu dismissed that assessment. Trump has doubted U.S. intelligence agencies before \u2212 for example, over who was responsible for the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi (it was Saudi Arabia). Netanyahu, meanwhile, has been talking about Iran’s existential nuclear threat to Israel for as along as he’s been in the public eye.
Still, U.S. intelligences agencies, Trump, Netanyahu and the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog \u2212 the International Atomic Energy Agency \u2212 agree on the issue of Iran’s uranium.
All believe Iran has developed a large stockpile, and at a sufficiently enriched level, to sustain a nuclear reaction that could be used in a bomb if it decided to. But how quickly Iran could then “sprint to a nuclear weapon,” as Gen. Michael E. Kurilla put it on June 10, is also a matter of dispute, and estimates range from one week to one year.
Relief over a truce between Israel and Iran gave way to more concerns about the volatile Middle East region Tuesday.
Israel accused Iran of already violating the deal and promised to respond with force. Katz said Israel had detected Iranian missile launches and had ordered “high-intensity operations” targeting Iran.\u00a0Iran insisted there were no missiles directed at Israel, Iran’s Nour News reported.
Just hours earlier, Israel and Iran indicated they would accept the terms of the truce, both claiming victory in their 12-day conflict.
Netanyahu said his country had achieved the goals it set in launching its June 13 attack on Iran by destroying the nation’s nuclear program.
Iran\u2019s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, said its military had forced Israel to \u201cunilaterally accept defeat and accept a ceasefire.\u201d Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi vowed to halt any retaliatory strikes.
“CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE! It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE,” Trump\u00a0proclaimed in a social media post<\/a> Monday afternoon.
For two days, a nervous world had waited for Iran’s promised payback for the U.S. strikes. That retaliation came Monday when Iran launched missiles at Al Udeid Air Base, a U.S. facility in Doha, Qatar, following renewed Israeli bombardment of sites within Tehran earlier in the day.
Iran provided advance warning of its intention to strike the base, according to Trump. He said Iran fired 14 missiles: 13 of them were intercepted and one was deemed nonthreatening. No American or Qatari casualties were reported, Trump said.
The U.S. \u2212 with about 40,000 troops in the Mideast region<\/a> \u2212 has been on high alert since B-2 bombers on Saturday struck the Iran nuclear sites of Fordow, a uranium enrichment facility deep inside a remote mountain in Iran, and facilities at Natanz and Isfahan.
Al Udeid is the sprawling hub of U.S. military air operations in the Middle East. There are about 10,000 U.S. troops stationed there, on the outskirts of the capital of Doha.
Its air operations center has overseen fighters, bombers and drones that have conducted combat missions in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
Dignitaries make stops there frequently, including Trump and secretaries of Defense.
Trump ordered the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities \u2212 Operation Midnight Hammer<\/a> \u2212 effectively joining a war that Israel started on June 13 when it began bombing Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure. Israel said it helped the U.S. coordinate and plan the strikes.
Trump said all three sites were “totally obliterated.” But an independent assessment has not yet been carried out. The International Atomic Energy Agency \u2212 the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog \u2212 released a statement saying that so far it had not detected an increase in “off-site radiation levels,” one of the feared consequences of the strikes.
Contributing: Reuters<\/em><\/p>\n

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WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump tried to keep a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran in place Tuesday as reports emerged indicating the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend was not as successful as he initially claimed.Trump chastised Israel for accusing Iran of truce violations and ordering new strikes, saying he was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":154618,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}