{"id":154763,"date":"2025-06-26T10:48:31","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T10:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-iran-latest-supreme-leader-claims-victory-ahead-of-us-news-conference-defending-strikes-on-nuclear-sites-the-independent\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T10:48:31","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T10:48:31","slug":"trump-iran-latest-supreme-leader-claims-victory-ahead-of-us-news-conference-defending-strikes-on-nuclear-sites-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-iran-latest-supreme-leader-claims-victory-ahead-of-us-news-conference-defending-strikes-on-nuclear-sites-the-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump-Iran latest: Supreme leader claims \u2018victory\u2019 ahead of US news conference defending strikes on nuclear sites – The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Tehran says its nuclear sites \u2018badly damaged\u2019
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Donald Trump<\/a> has announced his defence secretary will hold a “major news conference”<\/a> today about the US bombing of three Iranian nuclear facilities<\/a>.
Pete Hegseth<\/a>, along with military officials, will hold the briefing at 8am EST at the Pentagon, “in order to fight for the Dignity of our Great American Pilots,” the US president<\/a> wrote on Truth Social.
“The News Conference will prove both interesting and irrefutable,” he added. His statement comes after a leaked Defense Intelligence Agency assessment<\/a> found that Trump’s airstrikes had only set back the country’s nuclear program by a matter of a few months.
CIA director John Ratcliffe said earlier that “new intelligence” indicates Iran<\/a>‘s nuclear program was severely damaged by recent US strikes, and that it would take years to be rebuilt.
Speaking at the Nato summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday, Trump compared the US operation to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings in Japan<\/a>, which killed an estimated 150,000 to 246,000 people, mostly civilians.
\u201cThat hit ended the war. I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima. I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing, that ended that war. This ended that with the war,\u201d he said.<\/a>
Donald Trump vowed to \u201csave\u201d Benjamin Netanyahu as he hit out at the Israeli prime minister\u2019s \u201cwitch-hunt\u201d corruption trial.
Trump claimed Israel\u2019s prime minister was a \u201cgreat hero\u201d and \u201cwarrior\u201d who faced politically motivated charges and called for the trial to be cancelled.
The president\u2019s intervention comes as Netanyahu\u2019s cross-examination, which began on 4 June, is set to resume on Monday. He faces charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust and denies all of them.
\u201cBibi Netanyahu\u2019s trial should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero, who has done so much for the State,\u201d Trump said on Truth Social.
Netanyahu was indicted in 2019. He pleaded not guilty after the trial, involving three criminal cases, began in 2020.
Read the full report below:<\/em>
The Pakistani government\u2019s support for Donald Trump\u2019s personal quest to win a Nobel Peace Prize has caused a political firestorm in the country, with many calling on prime minister Shehbaz Sharif to rescind the nomination in the wake of the US bombing of Iran.
Opposition leaders, activists, and civil society members have denounced the nomination of the American president for the prestigious peace award as an act of \u201ccrass flattery\u201d and national humiliation.
Its nomination of the US president for the peace award has put Pakistan in an awkward diplomatic position. Islamabad has staunchly and consistently supported the Palestinian cause and stayed firmly on the side of its neighbour Tehran throughout its conflict with Israel.
Read the full report below:<\/em>
Over a week has passed since the war between Israel<\/a> and the Islamic Republic began, with hostilities now paused in a fragile ceasefire<\/a>. Senior regime officials who haven\u2019t been killed are nowhere to be seen.
Since the war started,<\/a> there have only been two pre-recorded messages from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei<\/a>, delivered from an undisclosed location, both promising continued war<\/a> and further destruction. Meanwhile, Masoud Pezeshkian, the Islamic Republic\u2019s president \u2013 who failed to implement even basic safety measures like shelters or warning sirens \u2013 dismissed the threat by saying Israel will be \u201cpitiful\u201d.
The crumbling of the Islamic Republic\u2019s edifice is now seen not only by Iranians but by its neighbours and the wider world. And this truly could be a point of no return.
Read the full analysis here:<\/em>
As leaked US intelligence suggests Trump\u2019s strikes only put Iran\u2019s nuclear programme back by a few months, Tehran will feel the incentive to secure a weapon more than ever, world affairs editor Sam Kiley writes from Tel Aviv.
US president Donald Trump asserted that American and Iranian officials will talk next week, as Israel and Iran appeared to honour the fragile ceasefire between them for a third day.
Mr Trump, who helped negotiate the ceasefire that took hold on Tuesday on the 12th day of the war, told reporters at a Nato summit that he was not particularly interested in restarting negotiations with Iran, insisting that US strikes had destroyed its nuclear program.
Earlier in the day, an Iranian official questioned whether the United States could be trusted after its weekend attack.”We may sign an agreement, I don’t know,” Mr Trump said.
“The way I look at it, they fought, the war is done.”Iran has not acknowledged any talks taking place next week, though US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff has said there has been direct and indirect communication between the countries.
A sixth round of US-Iran negotiations was scheduled for earlier this month in Oman but was canceled after Israel attacked Iran.
US president Donald Trump has called for Israel to pardon prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu or cancel his corruption trial, saying the US would save him like it did his country.
Mr Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 in Israel on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust – all of which Mr Netanyahu denies. The trial began in 2020 and involves three criminal cases. He has pleaded not guilty.
“Bibi Netanyahu’s trial should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero, who has done so much for the State (of Israel),” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that he had learned that Mr Netanyahu was due to appear in court on Monday.
Israeli media have reported that cross-examination of Netanyahu began on 3 June in a Tel Aviv court and was expected to take about a year to complete.
Israeli president Issac Herzog has the power to pardon Mr Netanyahu but has been quoted by Israeli media as saying that a pardon is “not currently on the table.” He also said that “no such request had been made,” according to the reports.
Mr Trump extolled his ally as a “warrior” but also said in his post: “It was the United States of America that saved Israel, and now it is going to be the United States of America that saves Bibi Netanyahu.”
That appeared to be a reference to US involvement and support for Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear program.
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Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged inTehran says its nuclear sites \u2018badly damaged\u2019From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":154764,"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-154763","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\/154763","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=154763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}