Despite early intel

Trump maintains Iran strikes caused "total obliteration" despite early intel report. 

From CNN staff

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday reiterated his claim that US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities caused “total obliteration,” although he acknowledged the intelligence was “inconclusive” and preliminary. An initial classified report, revealed in a CNN exclusive, found that the attack only set back Tehran’s nuclear program by a few months.

Trump is currently in the Netherlands for a NATO summit, where he is expected to hold a news conference in a few hours.

Tehran, meanwhile, is threatening to pull out of a key nuclear non-proliferation treaty in the wake of Israel and the US targeting its nuclear facilities.

Below are the latest developments:

• “Total obliteration:” Trump has insisted that the strikes he ordered on Iranian nuclear sites caused “total obliteration,” after an initial classified report found the attack only set back Tehran’s nuclear program by a few months. Lashing out at the media, including CNN, which reported on the findings, he argued the strikes set Iran’s nuclear ambitions back by decades. Still, Trump acknowledged the intelligence was “inconclusive” and preliminary.
• Hiroshima comparisons: Controversially, Trump has drawn comparisons between his strikes on Iran over the weekend and the US use of nuclear bombs in Japan, saying both were used to successfully end wars. “I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima. I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing that ended that war,” the US president told reporters at the NATO summit. The comments came as Trump worked to underscore the significance of his strikes, which he said set back Iran’s nuclear program by decades.
• Gaza deal: Trump has also said he believes the American strikes on Iran could help lead to a breakthrough in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. “I think great progress is being made on Gaza. Because of the attack that we made, I think we’re going to have some very good news,” he said at Wednesday’s summit. “I think that it helped a little bit, it showed a lot of power.” More than 55,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, of which more than 17,000 are children.
• Nuclear treaty in jeopardy: Iran could rethink its membership of a landmark treaty aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons in the wake of US and Israeli strikes on its nuclear sites, the country’s foreign minister has suggested. Iran is a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), an agreement designed to monitor and prevent the global spread of nuclear weapons as well as promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology. Signatories to the treaty that do not possess nuclear weapons are prohibited from pursuing them.
• Iran central bank: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has signed an order that designates the Central Bank of Iran and other entities as terrorist organizations. The order “aims to target the heart of the Iranian regime’s terror-financing system, which operates, funds and arms terrorism across the Middle East via the Quds Force and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” the defense ministry said.