Iran rubs salt in Trump's wounds after damning intelligence leak: 'We made enormous sacrifices'

Hours after the US intelligence report contradicted US President Donald Trump's claims that the Iranian nuclear sites were obliterated, Tehran added insult to Trump's injury by stating that its nuclear programme will resume without interruption.

 

A statement issued by the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran said the nuclear programme of Iran "will resume without interruption." "We are ready to restart enrichment; our programme will not stop," the statement added.

 

Soon after, Iran’s parliament passed a bill suspending cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. This means that the IAEA inspectors can no longer enter Iran to conduct inspections unless national nuclear security is guaranteed, and any future access will require approval from Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

 

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also stated that the country would not abandon its programme. "They thought US involvement would lead to Iran’s surrender," Araghchi told an Arab news website. "But our strong missile response using Kheibar Shekan missiles forced them to back down and propose a ceasefire through diplomatic channels," he bragged.

 

“We have made tremendous efforts to achieve this technology, and our scientists have made enormous sacrifices, even losing their lives for this goal,” Araghchi said. "Our people have endured sanctions for this, and a war was imposed on our nation over this issue. No one in Iran will abandon this technology."

 

Meanwhile, a furious Donald Trump continued to call out CNN and New York Times for publishing the contents of the alleged intelligence report.  

"When you look at the pictures before and after the attack, everything on the ground is completely burned, everything," he said on the sidelines of the NATO Summit.  "Iran went down to the site afterwards, they said it's so devastated and they settled once they saw what we did to it," Trump says. "Two Iranians went down to see it and they said: 'This place is gone," he said.

 

"That hit ended the war," Trump said, effectively likening the US strike on Iran to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth too responded to the leaked intelligence report, stating the report was "preliminary and low confidence". He said the bombs "landed right where they were supposed to and caused "devastation."

Middle East