Tehran/Tel Aviv/Washington, June 25, 2025 — A fragile truce between Israel and Iran, brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump, remains in place—despite a brief Iranian retaliatory missile attack and a limited Israeli strike on Tehran after the ceasefire took effect . However, disputes persist over whether U.S. strikes decisively destroyed Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Claims of Nuclear Destruction Challenged
Steve Witkoff, a U.S. envoy on Fox News, emphatically defended the U.S. strikes, stating:
“All three of those [sites] had most, if not all, the centrifuges damaged or destroyed in a way that it will be almost impossible for them to resurrect that programme… it will take a period of years.”
He called the leak of intelligence suggesting otherwise “treasonous” en.wikipedia.org+15reuters.com+15ksl.com+15.
Witkoff reiterated the White House’s position that U.S. intervention “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities.
Intelligence Leak Contradicts U.S. Public Messaging
A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)—leaked to Reuters and CNN—found that the airstrikes on Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan likely delayed Iran’s program by only a few months, rather than eliminating it reuters.comksl.com+4reuters.com+4reuters.com+4. According to these sources:
- Enriched uranium stocks were not entirely destroyed.
- Underground bunkers remained structurally sound, merely sealing entrances, while key centrifuges survived reuters.com+10reuters.com+10ksl.com+10reuters.com.
The White House dismissed this analysis as “flat-out wrong” aljazeera.com+4reuters.com+4reuters.com+4.
U.S. Tells UN: Strikes “Degraded” Nuclear Capacity
At the United Nations Security Council, Acting U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea described the strikes as having “effectively fulfilled our narrow objective: to degrade Iran’s capacity to produce a nuclear weapon” under the inherent right to collective self-defense reuters.com.
She acknowledged that assessing full impact would take time, while Israeli UN Envoy Danny Danon said it was still early to evaluate the full extent but insisted the threat had been pushed back.
Ceasefire Holds, but Violations and Retribution Continue
The ceasefire appears to be holding, though both sides have accused each other of violations—Israel struck a radar installation near Tehran after Iran reportedly fired a missile within the ceasefire window, prompting Trump to publicly rebuke Israel reuters.com+7aljazeera.com+7reuters.com+7.
Iranian state media report 610 fatalities and over 3,000 injured, while Israel confirms at least 28 deaths from Iranian satellite strikes ksl.com+1reuters.com+1.
