Araghchi says attacks dealt blow to nuclear facilities

Uncertainty lingers over the fate of Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the New York Times reported on Thursday citing US officials.

Iran's entire program was significantly degraded by US and Israeli attacks, the report said citing the officials, and Iran would struggle to rapidly produce more nuclear fuel.

But US intelligence had previously assessed that Tehran would seek to move its stockpile should it face attack, they added, in order to keep as leverage in talks or to build a bomb.

Intelligence so far on the fate of the uranium was contradictory, the newspaper added citing the officials, who added that some of uranium believed to have been held at the Natanz facility had been damaged but not destroyed in Israeli and US air strikes.

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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"In my opinion, the worst-case scenario would be to leave Iran in the lurch after these strikes, which were genuinely effective," French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, adding US attacks on Iranian nuclear sites were likely effective.

"The American strikes were genuinely effective in Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow. But the worst would be that the consequence of this is Iran's exit from the Non-Proliferation Treaty and therefore, ultimately, a drift and a collective weakening," Macron added while on a visit to Brussels.