Israel-Iran live updates: Hegseth defends Iran bombing, says media undermining 'success'
Desk Report - 26 June 2025
President Donald Trump told ABC News on Tuesday morning he is "not happy" with either Israel or Iran after the opening hours of a nascent ceasefire between the two combatants were marred by reported exchanges. Trump said Iran and Israel both "violated" the ceasefire that he announced late on Monday, in comments made as he departed the White House. On Wednesday morning, the president and his administration continued to push back on an early intelligence report suggesting that the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities likely only set Tehran's nuclear program back by months.
Situation in the Middle East 'calming down,' Putin says Russian President Vladimir Putin said the situation in the Middle East is "calming down" and the conflict between Israel and Iran appears to be "in the past," in comments Thursday. "This means that it will be possible to develop economic relations with all countries in the region, including Iran," Putin said. In order to "preserve and consolidate the fragile truce" between Israel, Iran and the U.S., all parties need to return to the negotiating track as soon as possible, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement Thursday. "The settlement of the Iranian nuclear program, like the resolution of other crises in the Middle East, can only be achieved through diplomacy and negotiations. There is no reasonable alternative to this," Zakharova said in a statement, made in Russian. "The specific practical initiatives put forward by the Russian President aimed at finding mutually acceptable solutions remain on the table. They have been communicated to all parties involved: the U.S., Israel and Iran," she said.
Ayatollah Khamenei says Iran has delivered a 'harsh blow' to US in 1st comments since bombing Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei delivered a televised address on Thursday morning, just days after the United States targeted three Iranian nuclear facilities in a 30-hour bombing campaign, with the leader saying Iran has "delivered a harsh blow to America." Saturday's operation, named "Operation Midnight Hammer," marked the U.S. military's largest-ever deployment of B-2 stealth bombers and first use of 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs in combat, Pentagon officials said. The 30-hour precision strike targeted three Iranian nuclear facilities, making it the longest B-2 mission since 2001, according to officials. Ayatollah Khamenei struck a defiant tone on Thursday as he congratulated Iran for "its victory over the American regime."
The centrifuges at Iran's Fordow nuclear facility "have suffered a great deal," International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Grossi said Thursday. "Given the scale and capacity of the military means used, we can deduce that the centrifuges have suffered a great deal, if [they] have not been destroyed,” Grossi said, originally in French.
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said after the first bomb struck the target, "the pilots stated, quote, 'this was the brightest explosion that I've ever seen. It literally looked like daylight.'" "Unlike a normal surface bomb, you won't see an impact crater, because they're designed to deeply bury and then function ... All six weapons at each vent at Fordow went exactly where they were intended to go," Caine said.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a press conference on Thursday morning that the bombing of Iran was a "resounding success" and that the 30-hour bombing campaign was the most "complex and secretive military operation in history." "Because of decisive military action, President Trump created the conditions to end the war," Hegseth said.
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