Fate of Iran's highly enriched uranium remains elusive - NYT

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem renewed the Iran-backed Lebanese group's allegiance to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Thursday hours after the veteran Iranian leader emerged for the first time in over a week after a 12-day war with Israel.

Hezbollah, pounded by Israel in a series of attacks late last year, did not intervene to back Tehran as Israel and the United States launched air strikes.

"We affirm and are proud that we are with Iran and that we are under the guardianship of Imam Khamenei," Qassem said in a video address.

Qassem alleged "the unprecedented popular consensus around the leadership and regime in Iran and the rallying around Imam Khamenei to defend the country against aggression.”

Khamenei, he added, was a "brave, wise and inspiring leader who overcomes difficulties and stands in the field, fearless of blame while on God's path and confident in victory."

A former top intelligence official who delivered President Donald Trump his daily briefings during his first term said the political row over US strikes on Iran had gone toxic.

Beth Sanner told Politico in an interview that the toll of the strikes would become clear but the discourse was clouding the facts. Trump said the attacks "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program while a Pentagon assessment and Democrats doubt that.

"Now we’re in this really terrible doom loop where we’re having a conversation — this battle between obliterated and not obliterated — and in fact, we’re obliterating the nuance in the way that this conversation is going."

“We can have two things be true,” Sanner added. “We can have it be true that the bombing campaign was successful in destroying particular facilities or capabilities at particular facilities, and we still have questions about the Iran nuclear program and what might be left.”

"I think it will take a couple weeks to do a really good job" analyzing the damage, Sanner said.

A classified intelligence briefing for lawmakers on Thursday failed to bridge a deepening partisan rift over the success of US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, with prominent Democrats still questioning their effectiveness.

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Iranians speaking via Iran International's submission line doubted Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s declaration of victory over the United States and Israel in a televised speech on Thursday.

“If the killing of the Revolutionary Guards' top commanders in the first 10 minutes of war counts as a victory, then let Khamenei live in his delusions," said one person, whose identity was withheld for their safety.

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The presentation in line with common government practice was made by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine.

“The briefing raised more questions than it answered," Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said baldly.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said he left the briefing unsure about whether the US President Donald Trump was telling the truth and urged talks.

"Ultimately, the only way to truly constrain Iran's nuclear program is diplomacy. You cannot bomb knowledge out of existence. No matter how many scientists you kill, there are still people in Iran who know how to work centrifuges," he told reporters.

"To me, it still appears that we have only set back the Iranian nuclear program by a handful of months," the Connecticut lawmaker added.

"I just do not think the President was telling the truth when he said this program was obliterated. There's certainly damage done to the program, but there is still significant remaining capability."

Rallying to Trump's defense, Arkansas Republican and Iran hawk Senator Tom Cotton said the president's detractors must be mentally ill.

"Some Democrats, some in the media, seem that's such a case of Trump derangement syndrome that they're rooting for the survival of Iran's nuclear program versus celebrating the success of our pilots and their crews," Cotton said.

"I think we've caused catastrophic damage to Iran's nuclear program," Cotton insisted.

"If you look at the whole span of what happened over 12 days, the targeting of Iran's nuclear scientists, the underground bunkers, the centrifuges, the centrifuge manufacturing sites, the gas to metal conversion sites, that's why we're confident - since all of those are single points of failure in an effort to get a nuclear weapon - that we have had an extraordinary success," he added.