As the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran nears one week, there's little clarity on what comes next in U.S.-Iran relations and whether Iran remains a near-term nuclear threat.
President Trump and Iran's leaders have sent mixed signals on resuming nuclear talks, while new evidence called into further question Trump's claims that U.S. strikes obliterated Iran's nuclear threat.
Trump denied reports Monday that he is weighing a $30 billion deal with Iran that would allow for the development of civilian nuclear facilities.
The ceasefire came after a 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran, started when Israel launched an attack on Tehran in June that it said was meant to prevent the country from developing a nuclear bomb. Iran has maintained its nuclear program is not intended to produce a weapon.
Here are five new developments in the ceasefire:
Leaked Iran call challenges Trump’s ‘obliterated' narrative
The Trump administration was roiled Sunday after news broke of intercepted communication between senior Iranian government officials commenting that June's U.S. strikes on Tehran’s nuclear sites were less devastating than expected.
The Iranian officials in a phone call said the U.S. bombing of three nuclear facilities were not as damaging or extensive as had been expected, challenging the Trump administration’s repeated assertions that the sites and Tehran’s nuclear program were “completely and totally obliterated.”
The call, first reported by The Washington Post, follows debate among the intelligence community as to how damaged the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites were after the strikes.
While Trump continues to insist the bombings destroyed all they targeted and sent Iran’s nuclear program back by years, a leaked summary from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency found that structures underneath Fordow and Natanz were still intact and Tehran was only set back by months, as it had likely moved a significant portion of enriched uranium prior to the strikes.
After classified briefings last week at the Capitol, Republican lawmakers have conceded that the strikes may not have wiped out all of Iran’s nuclear materials.
Trump administration officials, while not denying the Iran call’s existence, were quick to attack the Post’s reporting. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the outlet “shameful” for “publishing out-of-context leaks.”
She also insisted that “the notion that unnamed Iranian officials know what happened under hundreds of feet of rubble is nonsense. Their nuclear weapons program is over.”
And chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell took to social platform X on Sunday to lambast the so-called mainstream media for “engaging in a weaponized smear campaign against America & our incredible troops.”
He also accused the Post of “using incomplete, out-of-context & flat-out false intelligence ‘assessments.’”
Grossi says Tehran could restart enriching uranium in ‘months'
Further contradicting Trump’s claims, the head of the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog said Sunday Iran could restart enriching uranium “in a matter of months.”
Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that “one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there” when it comes to Iran’s capabilities.
“The capacities they have are there. They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that,” Grossi told CBS’s “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Grossi also said that while it’s clear Washington’s bombings caused “severe damage,” it didn’t cause “total damage.”
“Iran has the capacities there; industrial and technological capacities. So if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again.”
Iran’s open to talks if US rules out further strikes
Iran’s deputy foreign minister on Monday indicated an opening for diplomatic talks over the country’s nuclear program, telling the BBC that talks could resume should the U.S. agree it will not launch any additional military strikes.
“We are hearing from Washington, telling us that they want to talk,” Iranian diplomat Majid Takht-Ravanchi told the outlet. “Right now, we are seeking an answer to this question: Are we going to see a repetition of an act of aggression while we are engaging in dialog?”
“They have not made their position clear yet,” he added.
Iran has insisted that in any restarted nuclear talks, the nation must ultimately be allowed to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, which Tehran’s leaders have claimed they were doing before the attacks on their program.
“The capacity can be discussed but to say that you should not have enrichment, you should have zero enrichment and if you do not agree with bomb you? That is the law of the jungle,” Takht-Ravanchi said.
Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations Amir-Saeid Iravani a day earlier told CBS that his country’s uranium enrichment will “never stop” as it has an “inalienable right” to do so for peaceful nuclear activity.
Trump not committing to economic incentives
Despite Iran’s repeated pledges to continue its uranium enrichment, the Trump administration is reportedly exploring possible economic incentives for Tehran should it halt that action.
CNN first reported that U.S. officials are tentatively considering releasing billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets and also allow Tehran to receive assistance from regional countries for a civilian nuclear program. The moves would reportedly grant Iran access to as much as $30 billion.
But Trump late Friday pushed back on the report and denied Iran would be offered any such concessions.
“Who in the Fake News Media is the SleazeBag saying that ‘President Trump wants to give Iran $30 Billion to build non-military Nuclear facilities.’ Never heard of this ridiculous idea,” he wrote on Truth Social.
On Monday, the president doubled down.
“I am not offering Iran ANYTHING, unlike [former President] Obama, who paid them $Billions under the stupid ‘road to a Nuclear Weapon JCPOA (which would now be expired!),” he wrote on Truth Social, adding “nor am I even talking to them since we totally OBLITERATED their Nuclear Facilities.”
Trump in 2018 pulled the U.S. out of the Obama-era nuclear deal — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — with Iran, claiming that sanctions relief and unfreezing of Iranian assets had only provided funds to the regime to continue keeping its nuclear weapons ambitions afloat.
But Trump earlier Friday suggested he could retract previously imposed sanctions on Iran.
Netanyahu to meet with Trump in DC
Amid all the uncertainty, Trump will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks at the White House next week.
The meeting, set for July 7 and first reported by Axios, comes as Trump has stepped up pressure on the Israeli government to bring about an end to its war in Gaza now that a ceasefire with Israel and Iran has appeared to hold.
“We think within the next week we’re going to get a ceasefire” in Gaza, Trump told reporters Friday, but declined to offer any further details of such a deal.
Leavitt said Monday bringing an end to the Gaza conflict is a priority for Trump and that he and administration officials were in constant communication with the Israelis.
“It’s heartbreaking to see the images that have come out from both Israel and Gaza throughout this war, and the president wants to see it end,” Leavitt said. “He wants to save lives.”
Ahead of Netanyahu’s visit, Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer — a close confidant of the prime minister — is in Washington this week for talks with senior administration officials on Iran, Gaza and other issues.
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