June 24, 2025 – Israel-Iran conflict

• Early intel assessment: The US military’s strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend did not destroy the core components of its nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, according to an early US intelligence assessment that was described by sources briefed on it. The White House acknowledged the existence of the assessment but said it disagreed with it.

• Trump’s rebuke: US President Donald Trump flashed intense anger this morning as the ceasefire he brokered between Israel and Iran appeared to grow more fragile. Before heading to the NATO summit in the Netherlands, Trump conveyed he was particularly unhappy with Israel.

• Ceasefire appears to hold: Both Israel and Iran said they will not break the ceasefire unless the other does so first, after the two countries earlier traded accusations of truce violations. Trump also said he does not seek regime change in Iran because he doesn’t want to see “chaos.”

Our live coverage of the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran has moved here.

While discussing Iran with journalists aboard Air Force One, US President Donald Trump revealed Russian President Vladimir Putin called to offer help with the situation in Iran.

You can also watch the video on CNN Shorts.

Israelis on the streets of Haifa Tuesday afternoon welcomed a tentative end to their country’s 12-day conflict with Iran and expressed some gratitude to US President Donald Trump for his role in the currently holding ceasefire.

Interviews conducted in the northern city by the Reuters news agency came just hours after Trump used a profanity to lash out at Israel, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, and Iran, of breaching the ceasefire he had announced.

“Yes, that’s typical Trump,” a 70-year-old Haifa resident, who gave her name as Esther, told Reuters.

Haifa has been the target of Iranian missiles since Israel’s initial strikes on June 13, including an attack that injured dozens on Saturday.

Daniel Kopylkov, a 27-year-old cook, told Reuters: “Honestly, I don’t care that much about what Trump said about Israel.

The US struck three Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday, in attacks the White House said “obliterated” Tehran’s nuclear program. However, US intelligence sources told CNN the strikes may only have set Iran’s nuclear ambitions back by a matter of months, according to preliminary assessments.

President Trump announced a ceasefire after Iran launched an attack at a US base in Qatar Monday, which it sent warning of in advance.

Israel and Iran traded missile strikes Tuesday, accusing one another of breaking the ceasefire, before each side recommitted to it.

Marc Volovici, a 42-year-old historian, told Reuters in Haifa that the US involvement in the conflict underscored Israel’s dependence on its key ally.

“It’s just a demonstration that Israel, even though it claims to be in charge of its own fate and future, is still dependent on American support completely in terms of both political and financial backing and, of course, ammunition.”

In a post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump disputed CNN reporting that an early US intelligence assessment suggests strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities did not destroy core components of its nuclear program.

Earlier Tuesday, CNN reported that US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend likely only set the country’s nuclear program back by months, according to an early US intelligence assessment that was described by seven people briefed on it.

The president posted his original comments at approximately 3:30 a.m. local time, before deleting and reposting after correcting a spelling error in the original post, slamming CNN and The New York Times, for what he called “AN ATTEMPT TO DEMEAN” the strikes.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back against CNN’s reporting earlier Tuesday as well, acknowledging its existence but calling it “flat-out wrong.”

Republican senators are waiting for more information about the state of Iran’s nuclear program and what could come next after US strikes on facilities over the weekend.

The need for more information comes against the backdrop of CNN reporting that the US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend did not destroy the core components of the nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, according to an early US intelligence assessment. The early findings are at odds with President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that the strikes “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities.

The Trump administration postponed classified briefings for the House and Senate on Tuesday — with the House briefing on Friday and the Senators on Thursday — leaving Democratic lawmakers saying they have a lot of questions and many in the GOP backing President Donald Trump.

Here’s what some GOP senators are saying:

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said his country would respond “forcefully” to any violation of the ceasefire that has been struck with Iran.

Speaking to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Danon echoed other Israeli officials in thanking US President Donald Trump for his role in the ceasefire he announced on Monday.

He reiterated that Israel “struck a severe blow” to Iran with its attacks on Iranian regime targets.

Iran’s United Nations envoyAmir-Saeid Iravani thanked Qatar for its role in the Iran-Israel ceasefire at a UN Security Council meeting Tuesday.

“I wish to sincerely thank our brotherly and friendly nation the state of Qatar for its sincere and diplomatic efforts to help end Israeli aggression, establish a ceasefire and prevent a further escalation of regional tensions that threaten peace and stability in the region,” the Iranian diplomat told the council.

Iravani’s expression of gratitude to Qatar comes a day after Iran launched an attack on a US airbase in the Gulf country.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani secured Iran’s agreement on Monday, a diplomat briefed on the talks told CNN, finally allowing US President Donald Trump to announce the ceasefire on social media.

While Democrats have been furious that the Trump administration abruptly canceled a pair of classified briefings scheduled for Tuesday, many Republicans downplayed the need for lawmakers to be briefed on the unfolding situation in the first place as the party largely lines up behind President Donald Trump.

Here’s what some Republicans are saying:

A larger trend: A former House Foreign Affairs Committee Republican aide, Leslie Shedd, said the lack of intelligence going to Capitol Hill is part of a larger trend.

“Recent administrations on both sides of the aisle have been hesitant to share too much information with Congress—even with people in their own party. Between social media and the 24-hour news cycle, the more members who know something interesting, the more likely it is to leak out.”

Correction: A previous version of this post incorrectly identified the state Rep. Thomas Massie represents. He represents Kentucky.

Israel has extended its order until July 10 for reservists to step into duty after approval from the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Israel has a relatively small standing military, but a much larger reserve corps upon which it relies during an extended conflict. Earlier this year, the military said it would mobilize tens of thousands of reservists in an expansion of its offensive in Gaza.

Israeli reservists have become increasingly vocal since Israel broke the ceasefire with Hamas earlier this year and resumed the war, questioning the government’s commitment to negotiating a return of the remaining hostages in Gaza. In a sign of a growing protest movement, reservists have called for the immediate return of the hostages, even if it requires an immediate ceasefire.

As Iran dominates headlines, the Palestinians and Israeli hostage families caught up in the region’s longest war have slipped from the front pages, largely forgotten amid the devastating blows between two of the Middle East’s most powerful countries.

Israel’s offensive has shown no signs of abating in the Gaza, with Israeli fire killing hundreds of people there since the Iran-Israel conflict began. Since Israel’s bombardment of Iran began on June 13, more than 860 people in Gaza have been killed by Israeli fire, according to CNN’s calculations of daily death tolls released by the Palestinian health ministry.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum on Tuesday called for the ceasefire between Israel and Iran to be expanded to include Gaza. Fifty hostages remain in captivity in the enclave, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive, according to the Israeli government.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said House members will receive a classified briefing Friday on the situation in Iran after it was postponed on Tuesday.

The White House on Tuesday cited “evolved circumstances” in the Middle East for its decision to delay previously scheduled congressional briefings with intelligence officials regarding the Israel-Iran conflict and US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

“Due to evolved circumstances as a result of recent positive developments in the Middle East, the previously scheduled briefings for Senators is being postponed to this Thursday,” the White House said in a statement.

The US strikes in Iran over the weekend degraded Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons, the US ambassador to the United Nations told the Security Council Tuesday.

“On June 21, a US precision operation effectively fulfilled our narrow objective: to degrade Iran’s capacity to produce a nuclear weapon,” Dorothy Shea said.

The strikes were in line with the “inherent right to collective self-defense” and aimed to mitigate the threat Iran posed to the region,” Shea said.

Her comments come as an early US intelligence assessment — that was described by four people briefed on it — said that US strikes did not strike the core components of the country’s nuclear program and will likely only set it back by months.

This post has been updated with context on the US intelligence assessment. CNN’s Kara Fox contributed reporting.

The death toll in the Israeli strikes on residential buildings in northwest Iran early Tuesday has risen to 16, Iranian state-affiliated media reported, citing a regional official.

The attack in Gilan province in Iran wounded 33 people and destroyed four residential units, the deputy governor of Gilan said, according to the state-affiliated Fars news agency.

This strike came just hours before US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said while it is “too early” to hold diplomatic talks with Iran, “I believe it will happen soon.”

Speaking to reporters at the UN in New York on Tuesday, Danon said it was still “too early to assess all the strikes” that Israel had carried out on Iranian nuclear sites.

“We know we were able to push back the program. We were able to remove the imminent threat that we had,” he said.

The UN ambassador also hinted that Israel was open to new relationships with Arab nations.

Now is the “time to build bridges and partnerships in the region,” he said, without pointing to any particular country but citing Israel’s normalization of relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco through the Abraham Accords.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US President Donald Trump for the United States’ involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict.

In an address to the nation Tuesday night, the prime minister expressed gratitude to Trump for “his coordination and joining the campaign, not just on the defensive, but also offensively,” calling it a “historic event.”

“We have never had a greater friend in the White House,” he said of Trump.

Netanyahu said that just hours before the ceasefire, Israel carried out the most “devastating” strike Tehran has seen in 50 years.

“We eliminated hundreds of regime operatives and members of the Revolutionary Guard,” he said.

Israel “destroyed” Iran’s nuclear program, Netanyahu said, warning if anyone in Iran tries to restore the program, Israel will “act with the same determination and the same force to foil such an attempt.”

Remember: Trump flashed intense anger this morning, criticizing both sides, but reserving his harshest condemnation for Israel, who he said “unloaded” on Iran “as soon as we made the deal.” While Netanyahu thanked Trump, the president’s decision to launch airstrikes against Iran is broadly unpopular with Americans, according to a new CNN poll.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed Israel will continue to weaken what he called the “Iranian axis,” defeat Hamas and secure the return of hostages in Gaza.

“We are neither complacent nor overconfident. We have no intention of taking our foot off the gas,” he said in an address to the nation Tuesday.

The US undertook a “great diplomatic effort” to sway the Turkmenistan government to accept Americans departing Iran because of the Israel-Iran conflict, a State Department official said Tuesday.

The effort involved the highest levels of State Department leadership. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Turkmenistan Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov “reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring U.S. citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents are able to safely leave Iran through the Turkmenistan border.”

“The United States expressed gratitude for Turkmenistan’s cooperation and looks forward to further partnership with Turkmenistan, including expanding economic and commercial ties,” the readout of their call said.

Prior to opening the border, 198 Americans had reached out to the State Department about departing via the route, but at least 30 have since departed through other routes.

“We attempted to call every one of those 198 on Sunday night. Many didn’t answer the phone” the official said, noting that “tens” of Americans have left to Turkmenistan as of Tuesday morning.

Hundreds of Americans and their family members have left Iran since the conflict began, primarily via Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani government has required the US embassy there to write a note for Americans and family members coming into the country from Iran but has been quickly approving them, the official said.

Others have gone to Turkey and Armenia.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “achieved a historic victory” that will stand for future generations after its 12-day conflict with Iran.

In an address to the nation, Netanyahu said Israel had removed what he called an existential nuclear threat against it, as well as thousands of Iranian ballistic missiles.

In the meantime: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also claimed his country had achieved a “historic victory” following the conflict that was “imposed” by Israel, according to the state-run news agency IRIB.

The US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, according to an early US intelligence assessment that was described by three people briefed on it.

The assessment, which has not been previously reported, was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm. It is based on a battle damage assessment conducted by US Central Command in the aftermath of the US strikes, one of the sources said.

The analysis of the damage to the sites and the impact of the strikes on Iran’s nuclear ambitions is ongoing, and could change as more intelligence becomes available. But the early findings are at odds with President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that the strikes “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also said on Sunday that Iran’s nuclear ambitions “have been obliterated.”

Two of the people familiar with the assessment said Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed. One of the people said the centrifuges are largely “intact.”

“So the (DIA) assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops,” this person added.

The White House acknowledged the existence of the assessment but said they disagreed with it.

Read more about the early assessment.

You can also watch this video on YouTube Shorts.

Israel will respect the ceasefire with Iran “as long as the other side does,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he told US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

Katz said he also thanked Hegseth for President Donald Trump’s decision to “act with Israel” against Iran’s nuclear program, which he described as a threat.

What Iran said: Iran’s president earlier said his country will not violate the terms of its ceasefire with Israel, unless Israel breaks the pact first, as reported by state-affiliated Nour News.