International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said on Tuesday that the assessment of Iran's nuclear program had fundamentally changed because of the war and strikes targeting the country’s nuclear sites.
"So many nuclear activities that were taking place in Iran have now stopped," Grossi added.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday said Iran was trying to "stymie" diplomatic efforts between Israel and Lebanon and involve itself in the process so it could claim credit if an agreement is reached.
"We are trying to view the Lebanon-Israeli talks as separate and distinct from Iran, and Iran wants to do is mix it all together," Rubio told lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"(Iran is) trying to stymie any effort in which Israel and Lebanon can work together and prolong it, so that if an arrangement is reached at some point in the future, they can claim credit for having forced it through leverage," Rubio added.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is offering the United Arab Emirates technical and moral support after a drone attack last month on the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said on Tuesday.
Grossi said Emirati authorities reacted very quickly to the attack by shutting down a reactor after the loss of external power.
He said a number of activities would take place to complete repairs at the plant but gave no further details.
An Iraqi-Iranian man indicted over nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks in Europe and the United States told FBI agents he met Ali Khamenei in Iran three days before the war began and the supreme leader was killed, according to US court documents.
Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, 32, has been charged in an eight-count indictment over what US prosecutors described as his work as an operative of Tehran-backed Kata’ib Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, both designated by Washington as foreign terrorist organizations.
The Justice Department said Al-Saadi was involved in nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe and the United States, including attacks targeting Jewish and Israeli sites in London and an alleged attempt to arrange attacks on US soil.
Public court filings say Al-Saadi described close relationships with Iranian and IRGC leaders. He said he was “like a son” to Qasem Soleimani, the longtime commander of the IRGC Quds Force who was killed in a US airstrike in 2020.
According to the documents, Al-Saadi said he regularly traveled with Soleimani and was supposed to drive him to meet Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, then the leader of Kata’ib Hezbollah, on the day Soleimani and al-Muhandis were killed.
Al-Saadi also told investigators he was close to Khamenei and had met him in Iran approximately three days before the conflict began on February 28 and Khamenei was killed, the court documents said.
According to the filings, Al-Saadi was transferred to FBI custody on May 14 and taken to the United States with several electronic devices, including an Apple iPhone referred to in the documents as the “Al-Saadi Phone.”
While in FBI custody, Al-Saadi waived his Miranda rights and told US law enforcement agents he was a leader of “the resistance,” which he described as including the IRGC and its proxies, among them Kata’ib Hezbollah, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis.
He also told investigators he was responsible for media and psychological warfare against the United States, as well as strategy and military intelligence, the documents said.
Prosecutors said Al-Saadi’s phone and social media accounts contained evidence of his longstanding support for the IRGC, Kata’ib Hezbollah and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, as well as his role in planning, carrying out and promoting attacks in Europe.
The Justice Department said the phone contained videos and photos of Al-Saadi meeting with leaders of the IRGC, Kata’ib Hezbollah and the Houthis, images glorifying the IRGC and Hezbollah, and material showing him as a Kata’ib Hezbollah commander with access to machine guns and other weapons.
One video cited in the filing appears to show Al-Saadi with Soleimani and Akram Abbas al-Kabi, a US-designated terrorist described by prosecutors as one of the main IRGC Quds Force operatives in Iraq, in what appeared to be an underground operations center.
The court documents also say Al-Saadi joined FaceTime calls with attackers as some European attacks were being carried out, filmed the attacks in real time, helped create and distribute propaganda videos, and discussed the timing of attacks with a Kata’ib Hezbollah contact.
In one case, prosecutors cited a video from April 18, the day of an attack on a synagogue in London, showing Al-Saadi and several other men on a FaceTime call projected on a large screen with the logo of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya in the background.
The filing says one man on the call instructed the attacker in English, telling him to take a lighter, “light it” and “throw the fourth one.”
The Justice Department said Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, which claimed responsibility for several attacks, was a front for Kata’ib Hezbollah and other US-designated terrorist organizations.
Al-Saadi faces charges including conspiring to provide material support to Kata’ib Hezbollah and the IRGC, conspiring to provide material support for acts of terrorism, attempted acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiring to bomb a place of public use, attempted destruction of property by fire or explosives, and financing terrorism.
The charges are accusations, and Al-Saadi is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that conversations between the Washington and Iran had been going on continuously, adding that that reports the two sides had stopped speaking a few days ago were "false and erroneous."
"Fake News Reports that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the U.S.A. stopped speaking a few days ago are false and erroneous," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
"The conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, and today," he said.
"Where they lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, 'It’s time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal. You’ve been doing this for 47 years, and it cannot be allowed to go on any longer!'" he added.
Israel's new Mossad chief Roman Gofman said the Israeli military actions against Iran and its regional allies had changed the balance of power in the Middle East, but said the task was not yet complete.
“The strategic reversal that we brought about against the Iranian axis has changed the balance of power across the entire region,” Gofman said at a welcoming ceremony after taking over as head of the intelligence agency.
“But the task is not yet complete. The heart of the Mossad lies in covert operations against its targets. We will safeguard that mission at all costs,” he added.
