Things seem to be ALL OVER the place….
President Trump suggested he might back eventual sanctions relief for Iran “if they can be peaceful,” combining threats and the prospect of diplomacy after US strikes aimed at destroying Iranian nuclear sites, Bloomberg reports.
Said Trump: “We have the sanctions on. And if they do a job, and if they can be peaceful, and if they can show us they’re not going to do any more harm, I would take the sanctions off.”
U.N. nuclear watchdog says Iran could enrich uranium again in ‘a matter of months’
The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog says Iran could begin enriching uranium again within months following an attack by the U.S. military on three of its facilities earlier in June.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. office that inspects countries’ nuclear programs to ensure compliance with nonproliferation agreements, made the comments in an interview recorded Friday and aired on Sunday by CBS’s Face the Nation.
They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that,” he said.
Grossi said he believed the facilities that were hit by U.S. bombs suffered severe but not total damage, and added that Iran had other means of achieving its nuclear goals.
“Iran had a very vast ambitious program, and part of it may still be there, and if not, there is also the self-evident truth that the knowledge is there. The industrial capacity is there. Iran is a very sophisticated country in terms of nuclear technology, as is obvious,” he said.
President Trump said shortly after the strikes that the U.S. had “totally obliterated” Iran’s three main nuclear facilities, and other administration officials have echoed a similar assessment of the mission’s success…..
US Intel Iran communications intercepts leaked…..
The United States obtained intercepted communication between senior Iranian officials discussing this month’s U.S. military strikes on Iran’s nuclear program and remarking that the attack was less devastating than they had expected, said four people familiar with the classified intelligence circulating within the U.S. government.
The communication, intended to be private, included Iranian government officials speculating as to why the strikes directed by President Donald Trump were not as destructive and extensive as they had anticipated, these people said. Like some others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.
The intercepted signals intelligence is the latest preliminary informationoffering a more complicated picture than the one conveyed by the president, who has said the operation “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program.
The Trump administration did not dispute the existence of the intercepted communication, which have not been previously reported, but strenuously disagreed with the Iranians’ conclusions and cast doubt on their ability to assess the damage at the three nuclear facilities targeted in the U.S. operation.
“It’s shameful that The Washington Post is helping people commit felonies by publishing out-of-context leaks,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “The notion that unnamed Iranian officials know what happened under hundreds of feet of rubble is nonsense. Their nuclear weapons program is over.”…
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Iran going forward….
Already, tensions over how to address the crisis brought on by the war are evident.
President Pezeshkian appears to favor a liberalizing makeover, repairing relations with the West through a possible nuclear deal. He has spoken in recent days of “an opportunity to change our views on governance.”
It was not clear what he meant, but many in Iran favor strengthening elected institutions and making the supreme leader more of a figurehead than the ultimate font of authority. They seek an Islamic Republic that is more of a republic, where women are empowered and a younger generation no longer feels oppressed by a gerontocratic theological system.
Mr. Khamenei insisted that the Israeli and American attack on nuclear facilities had failed “to achieve anything significant.” But Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi seemed to question that judgment, saying on Thursday that the country’s nuclear facilities had sustained “significant and serious damage.”
Hardliners see any disunity as a danger signal. They believe concessions presage collapse. The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, 69 years after its formation, and the “color revolutions” that brought Western democracy to post-Soviet states, deeply affected Mr. Khamenei and his entourage.
They are suspicious of any nuclear deal, and adamant that Iran must retain the right to enrich uranium on its soil, which Israel and the United States have said is unacceptable. They are also strongly represented in the country’s single most powerful institution, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The Guards number 150,000 to 190,000 members, Ms. Vakil said. With control over vast swaths of the economy, they have a deep vested interest in the government’s survival. They are the kind of large institutional buffer that President Bashar al-Assad in Syria lacked before his downfall last year.
Already, as it did in 2009 when a large-scale uprising threatened the toppling of the Islamic Republic, Iran has embarked on a crackdown involving hundreds of arrests, at least three executions, and the deployment of the Revolutionary Guards and Basij militia in Kurdish and other restive areas….
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Iran worries whether the ceasefire will hold
While both Israel and Iran have been adhering to the truce, Iranian officials raised suspicions Sunday about whether the other side would continue to keep its word.
Abdolrahim Mousavi, the chief of staff for Iran’s armed forces, said in a conversation with Saudi Arabia’s defense minister that the country is prepared if there were to be another surprise Israeli attack.
“We did not initiate the war, but we responded to the aggressor with all our might, and since we have complete doubts about the enemy’s adherence to its commitments, including the ceasefire, we are prepared to give them a strong response if they repeat the aggression,” Mousavi said, according to Iranian state TV agency IRNA.
Update….
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Iran’s armed forces chief of staff Abdolrahim Mousavi said Tehran is not convinced Israel will honour a ceasefire that ended their 12-day war earlier this month. “We did not start the war, but we have responded to the aggressor with all our power, and as we have serious doubts over the enemy’s compliance with its commitments including the ceasefire, we are ready to respond with force” if attacked again, he said.
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The UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said Iran likely will be able to begin to produce enriched uranium “in a matter of months”, despite damage to several nuclear facilities from US and Israeli attacks.
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At least 56,500 Palestinian people have been killed and 133,419 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said. Over 85 Palestinian people were killed and 365 others injured in the last 24 hours alone, the ministry said in its regular update.
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An Israeli court has postponed Benjamin Netanyahu’s testimony in his corruption trial after he requested a delay with the support of Donald Trump.
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Iran’s judiciary said that the Israeli airstrike on the notorious Tehran’s Evin prison on Monday killed at least 71 people….
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Tens of thousands flee Gaza City after Israel warns of major offensive
Tens of thousands of Palestinians were fleeing eastern parts of Gaza City in the north of the territory on Sunday after Israel warned of a major offensive.
The messages on social media from the Israel Defense Forces warned of “military operations [that] will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city centre to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organisations” and directed those living in several crowded neighbourhoods to al-Mawasi, a coastal area much further south that is already overcrowded and has very limited facilities.
Witnesses described scenes of chaos as entire families tried to pack their remaining belongings, tents and meagre stocks of foods on to donkey carts, bicycles, improvised pickup trucks and cars.
Huge numbers of Palestinians displaced from homes or camps to the north of Gaza City moved there after renewed Israeli operations and clashes with Hamas since a fragile ceasefire collapsed in March….
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