Iran’s stockpile of highly-enriched uranium moved out before attack - Financial Times

Iran’s ambassador to France said the Islamic Republic has never pursued nuclear weapons.

“Nuclear weapons have no place in our defense doctrine,” Mohammad Amin-Nejad said Thursday.

Israeli lawmaker and former defense minister Benny Gantz rebuked Iran’s Supreme Leader for boasting of Israeli defeat.

“Come out of your underground hideout and see what harm and defeat you’ve brought on your own people,” he wrote in a Farsi-language message on X.

“A liar is the enemy of God,” he added.

His post came after Ali Khamenei sais in a video message from an undisclosed place that Israel was “nearly brought to its knees” under Iranian strikes.
“Despite all its noise and claims, the Zionist regime was nearly crushed under the strikes of the Islamic Republic,” Khamenei said.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed on Thursday that Mohammad Saeed Izadi, the commander of the Quds Force’s Palestine branch, was killed in Israeli airstrikes.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said on Thursday there is “a real window for diplomacy” on the situation in Iran, urging all parties to approach it “with resolve, as the moment demands.”

In a post on X following talks in Paris with France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, Grossi expressed gratitude for France’s support for the UN nuclear watchdog’s mission.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday rejected a leaked intelligence assessment that downplayed the impact of American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, calling the operation “a resounding success” that helped end the 12-day war. “President Trump directed the most complex and secretive military operation in history,” Hegseth said during a Pentagon press briefing, crediting it with creating the conditions for a ceasefire and “decimating—choose your word—obliterating, destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities.”

His comments followed a CNN report citing a leaked preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment suggesting the strikes failed to destroy the targeted nuclear sites or Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium. According to the report, the attacks may have delayed Iran’s nuclear program by only a few months.

Hegseth dismissed the report as unvetted and incomplete, saying it had not been coordinated with the broader intelligence community and was based on “linchpin assumptions” that could undermine its conclusions. “Even that preliminary report acknowledges likely severe damage,” he said, accusing unnamed officials of leaking it “to muddy the waters.”

Hegseth also pointed to other assessments, saying they supported the administration’s view. These included comments from the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, which said the Fordow facility was rendered inoperable, and IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, who told French media the strikes caused “enormous damage” to nuclear sites. Hegseth also cited the IDF chief of staff as saying Israel believed the program was set back by “years,” and Iran’s own foreign ministry, which acknowledged serious damage.