US strikes set back Iran’s nuclear program by years, CIA chief says - AP

Iran's foreign minister has called for an emergency session of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to condemn Israel's military campaign targeting what he called industrial chemical facilities in Iran.

"The Islamic Republic has called for an emergency session of the Executive Council of the OPCW to examine and condemn the inhuman attacks on the country's infrastructure, including industrial chemical facilities," said Abbas Araghchi in a statement on Sunday.

"Iran, as the largest victim of chemical weapons in modern history, is a strong advocate for a world free of weapons of mass destruction and the initiator of a Middle East free of nuclear weapons," Araghchi added.

"The country has always been at the forefront of the fight against these weapons," he said.

The statement was published on the 38th anniversary of Saddam Hussein's chemical attack against Sardasht in western Iran, which, according to OPCW documentation, killed over 100 people in a large-scale mustard gas attack.

A pundit on Iran's state-run TV said on Sunday that the current ceasefire is merely a brief period for Israel and the US to regroup, and they will resume their attacks on Iran soon.

"The available evidence indicates that Israel, with US support, will resume its surprise and destructive military operations against Iran within a week at most," said Ebrahim Mottaqi, head of the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Tehran, in a televised interview.

“Israel and the United States view the ceasefire as a means of regrouping and optimizing their own military capabilities,” he said.

Mottaqi called on Iranian officials to not take the ceasefire seriously, adding, "Iranian officials would be the targets of such an attack."

One of the main drivers behind Israel’s decision to strike Iran this month was a highly alarming breakthrough in Iran’s nuclear program, which suggested it was much closer to a nuclear bomb than previously believed by Israeli officials, a report by Israel's Channel 12 said.

The report added that a group of Iranian scientists had been secretly working on nuclear weapons development in a way that caused serious concern among Israeli intelligence and leadership.

It said that the operation aimed to stop this effort and specifically target the scientists involved — who, according to the report, “were indeed eliminated.”

French President Emmanuel Macron in a phone conversation with his Iranian counterpart called for Tehran's return to the negotiating table to address ballistic and nuclear issues, and for the resumption of the IAEA's work in Iran, his X account said.

He also called on Tehran to respect the ceasefire with Israel and to help restore peace in the region, the post on his X said.

Macron said he also called for the release of French nationals Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris and the protection of French nationals and facilities in Iran, which "must not be subject to any threats."

The United States intercepted private communications between senior Iranian officials discussing the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, in which the officials said the attacks were less damaging than expected, The Washington Post reported, citing four people familiar with classified intelligence circulating within the US government.

In the exchanges, Iranian officials speculated on why the strikes ordered by President Donald Trump were not as extensive or destructive as they had anticipated, the report added citing the unnamed sources.

The Trump administration did not dispute the existence of the intercepted messages but firmly rejected the Iranian assessment, casting doubt on Tehran’s ability to evaluate the level of destruction at the three targeted nuclear facilities.

“It’s shameful that The Washington Post is helping people commit felonies by publishing out-of-context leaks,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “The notion that unnamed Iranian officials know what happened under hundreds of feet of rubble is nonsense. Their nuclear weapons program is over.”