Closing summary
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said his country “delivered a heavy slap to the US’s face” and that the US “gained no achievement” when it joined the war with Israel against Tehran. He added that Iran had access to “key” US bases in the region and could take action “whenever it deems necessary”.
Referring to US president Donald Trump, who had claimed to have “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear programme, Khamenei said that he “exaggerated events in unusual ways, and it turned out that he needed this exaggeration – anyone who has heard these words has understood that there is another truth behind these words”.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth held a morning news conference to respond to an early leaked intelligence report suggesting US strikes against Iran likely put the country back mere months. President Donald Trump has insisted the US strikes delivered a “devastating” attack and that questioning his assessment of the strike was not only unpatriotic but also makes the pilots who dropped the bombs “very upset.”
Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile remains largely intact following US strikes on its main nuclear sites, European capitals believe, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. The newspaper, citing two people briefed on preliminary intelligence assessments, said European capitals believe Iran’s stockpile of 408 kilogram of uranium enriched close to weapons-grade levels was not concentrated in Fordow, one of its two main enrichment sites, at the time of last weekend’s attack.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked a court on Thursday to postpone his testimony in his long-running corruption trial in light of “regional and global developments”. “The court is respectfully requested to order the cancellation of the hearings in which the prime minister was scheduled to testify in the coming two weeks,” Netanyahu’s lawyer said in a filing.
The Iranian body tasked with vetting legislation approved a bill to suspend cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog on Thursday, citing recent US and Israeli strikes, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. Iranian lawmakers voted in favour of the bill on Wednesday, a day after a ceasefire ended a 12-day war with Israel that saw Israeli and US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would continue to work with US president Donald Trump to “defeat our common enemies, free our hostages, and quickly expand the circle of peace”. Netanyahu posted the message with a picture of himself and Trump holding hands shortly after Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave his first speech since Iran and Israel reached a ceasefire.
An anonymous Israeli government official has told Reuters that Israel has halted aid supplies to Gaza for two days to prevent them being seized by Hamas, after images circulated of masked men on aid trucks whom clan leaders said were protecting aid, not diverting it to the militants. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a joint statement with defense minister Israel Katz, said late on Wednesday that he had ordered the military to present a plan within two days to prevent Hamas from taking control of aid.
Israel’s national security minister called for a “complete halt” of humanitarian aid to Gaza on Thursday, claiming that Hamas is taking control of the supplied goods and food. Itamar Ben-Gvir says that he will “demand” Benjamin Netanyahu put a new vote to the country’s cabinet on the issue of the introduction of aid to Gaza.
Rescuers in Gaza said Israeli forces killed 35 people in the territory on Thursday, including four who they said were waiting to collect aid. Local health authorities said earlier in the day that an Israeli airstrike killed at least nine people at a school housing displaced families in the Sheikh Radwan suburb in Gaza City, while another strike killed nine people near a tent encampment in Khan Younis in the south of the enclave.
Trump’s administration ratcheted up its defence of the US’s weekend attacks on Iran, citing “new intelligence” to support its initial claim of complete success and criticising a leaked intelligence assessment that suggested Tehran’s nuclear programme had been set back by only a few months. The growing row came amid reports that the White House will to try to limit the sharing of classified documents with Congress, according to the Washington Post and the Associated Press.
US senators are set to meet with top national security officials on Thursday as many question president Donald Trump’s decision to bomb three Iranian nuclear sites — and whether those strikes were ultimately successful. The classified briefing, which was originally scheduled for Tuesday and was delayed, also comes as the Senate is expected to vote this week on a resolution that would require congressional approval if Trump decides to strike Iran again.
Trump has weighed in on ally Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-running corruption trial, saying in a social media post that the trial was a “witch hunt” and should be cancelled. The US president, who himself has faced an array of criminal charges and convictions that he argued were politically motivated, said he had “just learned that Bibi has been summoned to court on Monday” and also suggested a pardon for the “great hero”.
Poland’s embassy in Tehran has taken over the duties of EU countries that have evacuated their posts, the Polish foreign ministry said on Thursday. Portugal, Ireland and Germany last week temporarily relocated their embassy staff in Tehran abroad due to the current threat situation, while Bulgaria closed its embassy in Tehran and evacuated diplomatic staff and their families to neighbouring Azerbaijan.
Trump said the US will hold talks with Iran next week, with a possible agreement on the table about Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has threatened to respond to any future US attack by striking American military bases in the Middle East, in his first public comments since a ceasefire with Israel was declared.
