By JON GAMBRELL, DAVID RISING and FARNOUSH AMIRI
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran gave the impression to be holding on Wednesday whereas U.S. President Donald Trump asserted that U.S. and Iranian officers will speak subsequent week, giving rise to cautious hope for longer-term peace at the same time as Tehran insisted it is not going to quit its nuclear program.
Trump, who helped negotiate the ceasefire that took maintain Tuesday on the twelfth day of the warfare, advised reporters at a NATO summit that he wasn’t significantly excited about restarting negotiations with Iran, insisting that U.S. strikes had destroyed its nuclear program. Earlier within the day, an Iranian official questioned whether or not the US may very well be trusted after its weekend assault.
“We might signal an settlement, I don’t know,” Trump stated. “The best way I have a look at it, they fought, the warfare is finished.”
Iran has not acknowledged any talks going down subsequent week, although U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff has stated there was direct and oblique communication between the nations. A sixth spherical of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran had been scheduled for earlier this month in Oman however was cancelled when Israel attacked Iran.
Earlier, Trump stated the ceasefire was going “very effectively,” and added that Iran was “not going to have a bomb and so they’re not going to complement.”
Iran has insisted, nonetheless, that it’ll not quit its nuclear program. In a vote underscoring the robust path forward, its parliament agreed to fast-track a proposal that may successfully cease the nation’s cooperation with the Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company, the U.N. watchdog that has monitored this system for years.
Forward of the vote, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf criticized the IAEA for having “refused to even faux to sentence the assault on Iran’s nuclear services” that the U.S. carried out on Sunday.
“For that reason, the Atomic Vitality Group of Iran will droop cooperation with the IAEA till safety of nuclear services is ensured, and Iran’s peaceable nuclear program will transfer ahead at a sooner tempo,” Qalibaf advised lawmakers.
IAEA Director Common Rafael Mariano Grossi stated he had written to Iran to debate resuming inspections of their nuclear services. Amongst different issues, Iran claims to have moved its extremely enriched uranium forward of the U.S. strikes, and Grossi stated his inspectors must re-assess the nation’s stockpiles.
“We have to return,” he stated. “We have to interact.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, whose nation was a part of the 2015 cope with Iran that restricted its nuclear program however started unraveling after Trump pulled the U.S. out in his first time period, stated he hoped Tehran would come again to the desk.
Iran has lengthy maintained that its nuclear program was peaceable, and U.S. intelligence companies have assessed that Tehran is just not actively pursuing a bomb. Nonetheless, Israeli leaders have argued that Iran might shortly assemble a nuclear weapon.
Israel is broadly believed to be the one Center Japanese nation with nuclear weapons, which it has by no means acknowledged.
An Iranian girl walks previous a banner displaying head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, who was killed in Israeli strike, at Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) avenue in downtown Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photograph/Vahid Salemi)
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An Iranian girl walks previous a banner displaying head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, who was killed in Israeli strike, at Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) avenue in downtown Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photograph/Vahid Salemi)
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Questions over effectiveness of the US strikes
The Israel Atomic Vitality Fee stated its evaluation was that the U.S. and Israeli strikes have “set again Iran’s potential to develop nuclear weapons by a few years.” It didn’t give proof to again up its declare.
The U.S. strikes hit three Iranian nuclear websites, which Trump stated “fully and totally obliterated” the nation’s nuclear program. When requested a few U.S. intelligence report that discovered Iran’s nuclear program has been set again only some months, Trump scoffed and stated it will no less than take “years” to rebuild.
Iran’s International Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, confirmed that the strikes by U.S. B-2 bombers utilizing bunker-buster bombs had prompted important harm.
“Our nuclear installations have been badly broken, that’s for certain,” he advised Al Jazeera on Wednesday, whereas refusing to enter element.
He appeared to counsel Iran may not shut out IAEA inspectors for good, noting that the invoice earlier than parliament solely talks of suspending work with the company, not ending it. He additionally insisted Iran has the best to pursue a nuclear power program.
“Iran is set to protect that proper beneath any circumstances,” he stated.
Witkoff stated on Fox Information late on Tuesday that Israel and the U.S. had achieved their goal of “the entire destruction of the enrichment capability” in Iran, and Iran’s prerequisite for talks — that Israel finish its marketing campaign — had been fulfilled.
“The proof is within the pudding,” he stated. “Nobody’s capturing at one another. It’s over.”
Grossi stated he couldn’t speculate on how dangerous the harm was however that Iran’s nuclear capabilities had been well-known.
“The technical data is there, and the commercial capability is there,” he stated. “That nobody can deny, so we have to work along with them.”
Hopes for a long-term peace settlement
An Israeli official, talking on situation of anonymity to debate inside deliberations, stated the ceasefire settlement with Iran amounted to “quiet for quiet,” with no additional understandings about Iran’s nuclear program going forward.
Witkoff advised Fox Information that Trump is now seeking to land “a complete peace settlement that goes past even the ceasefire.”
“We’re already speaking to one another, not simply instantly, but in addition by interlocutors,” Witkoff stated, including that the conversations had been promising and “we’re hopeful that we will have a long-term peace settlement.”
Nonetheless, Baghaei, the Iranian spokesman, stated Washington had “torpedoed diplomacy” with its assaults on nuclear websites, and that whereas Iran in precept was at all times open to talks, nationwide safety was the precedence.
“We have now to verify whether or not the opposite events are actually severe once they’re speaking about diplomacy, or is it once more a part of their techniques to make extra issues for the area and for my nation,” he stated.
China and Russia, Iran’s strongest allies, welcomed the ceasefire and stated they hoped it will maintain.
Grossi stated Iran and the worldwide neighborhood ought to seize the chance of the ceasefire for a long-term diplomatic answer.
“Out of the … dangerous issues that navy battle brings, there’s additionally now a risk, a gap,” he stated. “We shouldn’t miss that chance.”
Iran executes 3 extra prisoners on spying allegations
Throughout the warfare with Israel, Iran executed a number of prisoners accused of spying for Israel, sparking fears from activists that it might conduct a wave of executions after the battle ends.
It hanged three extra prisoners on spying prices on Wednesday, bringing the entire variety of executions for espionage to 6 since June 16. Iran recognized the three as Azad Shojaei, Edris Aali and Iraqi nationwide Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul.
The hangings occurred at Urmia Jail in West Azerbaijan, Iran’s most northwestern province. State-run IRNA cited Iran’s judiciary for the information, saying the lads had been accused of bringing “assassination gear” into the nation.
Throughout the 12-day warfare, no less than 28 individuals had been killed in Israel and greater than 1,000 wounded, in response to officers.
Tehran on Tuesday put the demise toll in Iran at 606, with 5,332 individuals wounded. The Washington-based Human Rights Activists group launched figures Wednesday suggesting Israeli strikes on Iran had killed no less than 1,054 and wounded 4,476.
The group, which has supplied detailed casualty figures from a number of rounds of unrest in Iran, stated 417 of these killed had been civilians and 318 had been safety forces.
Throughout the warfare, Israeli airstrikes additionally focused Iran’s prime navy management and different websites related to its ruling theocracy.
With the ceasefire, Iranians try to return to their regular lives. State media described heavy visitors across the Caspian Sea and different rural areas exterior of the capital, Tehran, as individuals started returning to town.
Related Press writers Josef Federman and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Chris Megerian and Sylvie Corbet in The Hague, Netherlands, and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
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