Senator Marsha Blackburn praised the U.S. military and President Donald Trump for the success of Operation Midnight Hammer, calling it a historic moment in American and global security.

Speaking from the Senate floor, Blackburn described the mission as “absolutely incredible,” declaring that the United States “wiped out Iran’s nuclear program.”

She emphasized Iran’s long history of promoting terror and chaos across the Middle East while advancing its nuclear ambitions under chants of “death to Israel” and “death to America.”

That threat, she said, is now eliminated “thanks to the bravery, valor, and unmatched capability of the U.S. Military” and President Donald Trump’s “decisive leadership.”

She added, “Make no mistake, we have the only military on the planet that could get this job done,” crediting American service members as “the greatest fighting force in the history of the world.”

Blackburn concluded by stressing that a ceasefire has already been reached between Israel and a “much weaker Iran,” stating, “This is what peace through strength looks like, and only the U.S. military under President Trump’s leadership could accomplish this feat.”

In a rare moment of calm, the skies over Tel Aviv remained silent overnight as the newly brokered ceasefire between Israel and Iran held into early morning hours, according to live reporting by Fox News senior foreign affairs correspondent Greg Palkot.

Just 24 hours earlier, waves of Iranian ballistic missiles were raining down across Israel, with one strike hitting an apartment building south of Tel Aviv and killing four civilians.

Israel, in turn, had been launching final retaliatory strikes on Iranian military targets.But now, at least for the moment, the rockets have stopped.

“All is calm,” Palkot reported from Tel Aviv. “The need to be near bomb shelters has now been lifted.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised President Donald Trump and the United States for what he described as a historic intervention.

“Citizens of Israel, on your behalf, I thank my friend President Trump and the U.S. for their part in defending Israel and in removing the Iranian nuclear threat. It was historic. It never happened before,” Netanyahu said in a public address.

Israel has said it will abide by the ceasefire terms, but warned that any renewed Iranian nuclear activity or violations would prompt an immediate response.

Meanwhile, life is beginning to return to normal. Schools and public gatherings are reopening in Tel Aviv as security restrictions ease for the first time in days.

Federal officials are raising red flags over the growing threat of Iranian sleeper cells operating inside the United States, as ICE confirms a sweeping series of arrests following the U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.

In the past seven days alone, 130 Iranian nationals have been arrested across the country, according to multiple federal sources speaking to Fox News.

ICE currently has 670 Iranians in detention, and more arrests are expected as investigations continue.

The sharp increase in enforcement comes amid heightened national security concerns that Iranian operatives may have entered the country in recent years, potentially planning attacks or working in support of foreign-sponsored terrorism.

“The presence in this country of undocumented migrants or Iranian nationals who have links to Hezbollah, IRGC, is, in my judgment, a domestic law enforcement concern of the highest magnitude,” said former Obama-era DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson on “Fox & Friends.”

ICE sources confirm that some of those arrested have criminal histories, including charges related to drugs, weapons, and domestic violence. At least one had served as a sniper in the Iranian military within the last four years.

A recent Supreme Court ruling allowing deportations to third-party countries—even where diplomatic relations are limited—could lead to detainees being sent to nations other than Iran.

Tom Homan, Trump border czar, warned this week that years of lax border enforcement under the Biden administration opened the door for infiltration.

“We don’t know who they are, where they came from, why they’re here,” Homan said. “This is the biggest national security vulnerability we’ve ever seen.”

Fox News’ Bill Melugin and Madison Colombo contributed to this report.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, called on his Senate colleagues Wednesday to nominate President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, citing the dramatic de-escalation of conflict with Iran and the success of U.S. airstrikes in crippling Tehran’s nuclear program.

Speaking to reporters, Moreno said Trump’s leadership had prevented what many feared could become “World War III.”

“A week ago, there was a lot of absolutely panicking going on… and then basically, in a week, President Trump took it from this potential catastrophe to maybe even historic peace,” Moreno said. “I’ve asked my colleagues to nominate President Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize. Nobody deserves it more.”

Moreno credited Trump not only with executing precision strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure but also with brokering a ceasefire between Iran and Israel in less than two weeks.

“There’s no question—nobody’s been able to produce this kind of peace in the Middle East, ever, at least in my lifetime,” he added.

The Senate will receive a classified briefing on the operation at 2 p.m. on Thursday.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed Wednesday that recent U.S. and Israeli strikes caused severe damage to Iran’s nuclear program.

In a statement posted to X, Ratcliffe said the CIA has credible intelligence—including from a trusted source—that key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and will take years to rebuild.

“CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes,” he wrote.

Ratcliffe added that the agency is still gathering intelligence and will keep officials and, when possible, the public informed.

The statement directly contradicts leaked reports that suggested the strikes had limited impact. Ratcliffe said those reports were based on illegally sourced information and do not reflect the CIA’s current assessment.

Fox News has confirmed that the Trump administration will hold classified briefings on the Iran operation for both chambers of Congress this week.

The all-Senate classified briefing is now scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday, followed by the all-House briefing at 9 a.m. Friday.

These are the same briefings that were initially set for earlier in the week but were postponed. The briefings will cover the scope and impact of the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes that targeted key Iranian nuclear facilities as part of Operation Midnight Hammer.

Multiple Senate sources tell FOX News they have not yet received information on who the briefers will be. Speculation circulates that Sen. Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth could be involved in the rescheduled sessions.

Notably, Hegseth will already be on Capitol Hill Thursday morning for a Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony.

Lawmakers are expected to receive updates on damage assessments, intelligence findings, and potential retaliatory threats.

The Senate and House sessions will take place behind closed doors due to the highly sensitive nature of the material being presented.

Fox News’ Aishah Hasnie and Tyler Olson contributed to this report.

After 12 days of fighting, President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared victory against Iran’s nuclear program. 

Trump declared three nuclear sites had been obliterated, as Netanyahu announced that Israel had “removed an immediate dual existential threat: both in the nuclear domain and in the area of ballistic missiles” – achievements the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) failed to reach throughout some 20 years of monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities. 

Dr. Or Rabinowitz, a nuclear proliferation scholar from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a visiting associate professor at Stanford University, told Fox News Digital that the IAEA “cannot, by itself, stop a country that wants to divert nuclear material and technology from its civilian program to its military program.” 

“It can warn, and that’s what it has been doing,” she said. “Sometimes these warnings led to United Nations Security Council resolutions, and sometimes they didn’t, but the IAEA by itself, can’t do more than that – it is only as strong as the board members and the countries that participate in it.”

Days before Israel launched its military assault on Iran with the aim of removing the nuclear – and conventional – weapons threat, the global nuclear watchdog reported that Iran had an estimated 408.6 kilograms (nearly 901 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60%, enough to make some nine nuclear bombs. 

The report, which also criticized Iran’s lack of cooperation with the IAEA, prompted the agency’s board of governors, for the first time in 20 years, to declare that the Islamic Republic was in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.

“We shouldn’t be surprised by this failure, and we should add to this failure, the failure of the United Nations,” said Dr. Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. Guzansky highlighted the fact that just a week ago, in the midst of launching hundreds of ballistic missiles into Israeli towns and cities, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addressed the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. 

“Iran was welcomed there, and Israel was bashed,” he noted.  “It just shows that the U.N. system has long failed, and is long in need of remodeling, remaking, rebuilding,” Guzansky continued, adding that compared to other U.N. bodies, “the IAEA is fairly okay.”

“It’s not black and white, it has had some achievements, but it depends on what your expectations are,” he continued. “I don’t think anyone expected that the IAEA would entirely prevent Iran.”

Guzansky said that two decades of inspections and such reports had actually allowed Israel, and the U.S., to “gather intelligence and an understanding of Iran’s nuclear program” – a fact that was tested over the past week and a half. 

Iran has consistently maintained that all its nuclear activities were entirely peaceful and that it would never seek to develop or acquire nuclear weapons. “The real problem here isn’t necessarily the IAEA, it’s that Iran has been cheating for 20 years and has not been playing a straight bat,” said Alan Mendoza, Executive Director of the Henry Jackson Society.

“Iran has been confusing and tricking and secretly developing programs, which the IAEA has not been able to access,” he said, adding, “so, in many ways, it’s not the IAEA fault, per se, it doesn’t have any enforcement capabilities — its job is just to monitor.”

This is an excerpt of an article
by Fox News’ Ruth Marks Eglash.

In a striking assessment aired Wednesday on “America Reports,” nuclear weapons expert
David Albright said that U.S. and Israeli airstrikes have “effectively destroyed” Iran’s gas centrifuge enrichment program, setting Tehran’s nuclear ambitions back by years.

Albright, founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, cited recent satellite imagery showing heavy damage to key facilities across Iran, including Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan.

“Overall, Israel’s and U.S. attacks have effectively destroyed Iran’s centrifuge enrichment program,” Albright said. “It will be a long time before Iran comes anywhere near the capability it had before the attack.”

“Well, we’ve been looking at satellite imagery during the last two weeks, and it’s pretty devastating,” he said. “I mean, a lot of their above-ground facilities that are a critical part of a centrifuge program have been destroyed.”

Albright’s remarks align with Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission, which also told Fox News the combined U.S. and Israeli operation has set back Iran’s nuclear development “by many years.”

Albright concluded, “and so a lot what really is left is sort of what I call the residuals, or the remnants of the program… but the program itself has really been dealt a severe blow.”

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons confirmed Wednesday that 17 Iranian nationals have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, calling the situation part of a broader “heightened threat level” facing the U.S.

Appearing on America Reports, Lyons warned that many of those arrested may have had ties to hostile regimes or terror groups.

“We’re focused on individuals who didn’t come here for a better life but potentially to cause harm,” Lyons said.

He revealed that among the 17 arrests was one individual with admitted connections to Hezbollah and another identified as a trained sniper from a hostile foreign government.

The arrests come amid rising concerns about Iranian-linked sleeper cells inside the U.S.

“We want to prevent these incidents before anything bad does happen,” he said.

Lyons’ remarks follow President Trump’s warning aboard Air Force One that the previous administration allowed “supercells” to slip into the country through lax border enforcement.

As ICE ramps up enforcement, Lyons said his agency remains focused on defending American communities.“This is exactly why ICE exists,” said Lyons. “To act before it’s too late.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt forcefully defended the U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities during her appearance on America Reports on Wednesday, blasting media reports that suggested the mission may have fallen short.

Leavitt called Operation Midnight Hammer, directed by President Trump and carried out by U.S. B-2 bombers, a “historic success,” and said media coverage based on a leaked intelligence memo misrepresented the outcome.

“Five days ago, Iran had the ability to build a nuclear weapon,” Leavitt said. “Today, that threat is buried under miles of rubble thanks to the decisive leadership of President Trump and the excellence of our military.”

She pushed back against a preliminary DIA report cited by multiple outlets, which expressed uncertainty about the extent of the damage at Fordow. Leavitt said that assessment had since been discredited by U.S. officials, Israeli sources, and even the Iranian regime itself.

“CNN ran with a story they knew wasn’t fully vetted,” she said. “This was a leak from someone with an agenda—and the same reporter who once pushed the false Hunter Biden laptop narrative.”

Leavitt also confirmed that the FBI is investigating the leak of classified intelligence and emphasized that those responsible “should be held accountable.”

Leavitt stood by the administration’s position, saying: “This operation achieved what decades of diplomacy and sanctions could not.”

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesday pushed back forcefully against what she called the “propaganda media,” accusing them of selectively leaking classified material in an attempt to undercut President Donald Trump’s handling of the high-stakes Iran strikes.

In a post from her official X account, Gabbard confirmed that “new intelligence” has verified the destruction of Iran’s key nuclear sites at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan in last weekend’s bombing campaign.

“If the Iranians chose to rebuild, they would have to rebuild all three facilities… entirely,” she wrote. “Which would likely take years to do.”

She also criticized recent press reports relying on leaked intelligence assessments that downplayed the scale of the damage. “The propaganda media has deployed their usual tactic: selectively release portions of illegally leaked classified intelligence assessments (intentionally leaving out the fact that the assessment was written with ‘low confidence’) to try to undermine President Trump’s decisive leadership,” Gabbard said.

The former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, now serving as Trump’s DNI, has become a key public voice defending the administration’s national security posture during the growing Israel-Iran conflict.

Her post Wednesday marks the most assertive pushback yet from the U.S. intelligence community’s leadership.

The U.S. would strike Iran again if the country attempts to rebuild its nuclear program, President Donald Trump said Wednesday.

Trump made the statement during an exchange with reporters while attending a NATO summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday. The U.S. has touted a report from Israel stating that the strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities set back the country’s program “many years.”

A reporter asked Trump whether he would strike Iran again if it were to rebuild its nuclear facilities.

“Sure,” came Trump’s blunt response.

The exchange came after NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte praised Trump as a “man of strength” and a “man of peace” during Wednesday’s summit.

“I just want to recognize your decisive action on Iran,” Rutte said at the start of his joint remarks with the president. “You are a man of strength, but you are also a man of peace. And the fact that you are now also successful in getting this ceasefire done between Israel and Iran — I really want to commend you for that. I think this is important for the whole world.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio cracked up laughing
when President Donald Trump gave his reaction to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte calling the commander in chief “daddy” earlier Wednesday. 

During their bilateral meeting in The Hague, Netherlands, Trump discussed the U.S.’ role in brokering a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran, saying both countries were like “two kids in a school yard” who “fight like hell” for a short time before “it’s easier to stop them.” 

Rutte interjected, “Then daddy has to sometimes use strong language.” 

Trump had used profanity in front of reporters outside the White House before boarding Marine One on Tuesday, saying about Israel and Iran that they “have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— they’re doing. ” 

At a subsequent press conference Wednesday, Rubio broke into hysterics when a reporter from Sky News asked Trump about the remark. 

The reporter reminded Trump that Rutte, “who is your friend.… He called you daddy.” 

“Do you regard your NATO allies as kind of children?” the reporter asked. 

Trump responded lightheartedly, and Rubio could be seen standing next to him starting to smile and laugh. “No, he likes me. I think he likes me. If he doesn’t, I’ll let you know. I’ll come back, and I’ll hit him hard. Okay?” Trump said jokingly. 

Mossad chief David Barnea on Wednesday hailed the CIA’s cooperation with its military campaign against Tehran, adding that that the Israeli intelligence agency “will continue to keep close watch” on all projects inside of Iran, “which we now understand more deeply than ever before.” 

“I want to express deep appreciation to the IDF Chief of Staff, the IDF as a whole, Military Intelligence and its head, the commander of the Air Force and the entire corps — for the partnership with the Mossad and for achieving goals that at first seemed imaginary,” Barnea said.

“Thanks to our entire security establishment, the State of Israel feels like a different country —safer, stronger, and more prepared for the threats ahead,” Barnea added. “I want to extend my gratitude and appreciation to our key partner, the CIA, for the joint operations, and to the CIA Director for his support of the Mossad and for making the right decisions that enabled this operation.” 

Barnea also said “I would like to say ‘mission accomplished,’ but we must not forget that there are still fifty hostages in the Gaza Strip — thirty of whom are deceased, and twenty living hostages whom we have a moral and ethical duty to bring home. 

Fox News’ Efrat Lachter contributed to this report.

A source familiar with the Defense Intelligence Agency report suggesting that Iran’s nuclear facilities could be back online within months told Fox News that the assessment was based on “one day’s worth of intelligence reporting.”

More intelligence has been gathered in the days since through other sources and methods, according to the source.

The DIA report said “This is a preliminary phase 3 BDA (Battle Damage Assessment)” based on intelligence “as of 21:00 EDT June 22, 2025.”

“Full phase 3 BDA takes days to weeks to accumulate necessary data to assess the effects,” the report added.

Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin and Liz Friden contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth railed against the “fake news” media during a NATO summit press conference for casting doubt that the U.S. strikes on Iran obliterated the country’s nuclear program. 

“A statement came in from the Atomic Energy Commission of Israel,” Trump said during a Wednesday press conference from The Hague as he wrapped up his NATO summit trip in the Netherlands. “They’re very serious people, as you know.” 

“‘The devastating U.S. strike
on Fordow destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility totally inoperable,'” Trump read from the letter. “‘It was devastated. We assessed that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities had set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons for many years to come. This achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material.'” 

Trump took aim at U.S. media outlets for initially casting doubt that the strikes he ordered on Iran Saturday evening were not as devastating as the administration initially reported, calling outlets such as CNN “fake news” and slamming them for “maligning” the U.S. military by doubting the ferocity of the strikes. 

“I just want to thank our pilots,” Trump said. “You know, they were maligned and treated very bad, demeaned by fake news CNN, which is back there, believe it or not, wasting time, wasting time. Nobody’s watching them. So they just wasted a lot of time. wasting my time. And the New York Times, they put out a story that, ‘well, maybe they were hit, but it wasn’t so bad that they ended the war.'” 

The president added that he received a call that the pilots who deployed from Missouri to Iran for the strikes were “devastated” due to certain media outlets attempting to downplay the success of the mission. 

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the B-2 stealth bomber pilots who carried out the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities flew with a “great risk” and a “big chance that they would never come back home and see their husbands or their wives.” 

“I got a call from Missouri… I got a call that the pilots and people on the plane were devastated because they were trying to minimize the attack,” Trump also said in reference to a leaked preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment that said the U.S. strikes on Iran did not destroy three targeted nuclear sites. 

“ And they all said it was hit, but oh, but we don’t think it was really maybe hit that badly. And they were devastated. They put their lives on the line,” Trump added. “I spoke to one of them, he said ‘sir, we hit the site. It was perfect. It was dead-on.’” 

Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump brokered an historic ceasefire agreement between Israel and Iran on Monday, marking a dramatic pause in the most significant military confrontation between the two foes.

The Monday evening announcement took effect 12 hours later, following a timeline designed to allow final military maneuvers on both sides. However, a barrage of Iranian missile fire in the hours that followed left many Israelis questioning whether the truce had already been violated.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, John Spencer, executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute, said such delayed implementation is not unusual. “It’s hard to turn things off on a switch. You have aircraft in flight. You have forces in position,” he explained.

Spencer described the U.S. operation as historic.

“What’s historic is that the U.S. carried out a limited operation on nuclear targets
with zero losses—no pilot, no equipment—and helped Israel in a way only America could. Nuclear proliferation is nonpartisan, and this was an apolitical win.” Even after Iran struck a U.S. base in Qatar, he added, “the President showed immense restraint and kept focus on the broader goal: preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and continuing its terror campaign.”

Despite the violence that followed the announcement — including an Iranian strike that killed four civilians in Israel — Spencer believes the ceasefire will hold. “Both countries have now said we’re absolutely going to do it,” he said. “And yes, President Trump is very atypical in the way he communicates with the ceasefire… with the ‘don’t drop a single bomb.’”

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that the U.S. will meet with Iranian officials next week. 

“The way I look at it, they fought, the war is done. And, you know, I could get a statement that they’re not going to go nuclear. We’re probably going to ask for that… but they’re not going to be doing it anyway. They’ve had it,” Trump said. 

“We’re going to talk to them next week, with Iran. We may sign an agreement, I don’t know. To me, I don’t think it’s that necessary. I mean, they had a war. They fought. Now they’re going back to their world. I don’t care if I have an agreement or not. The only thing we would be asking for is what we’re asking for before about, we want no nuclear [program]. But we destroyed the nuclear,” Trump added. 

“If we got a document, it wouldn’t be bad. We’re going to meet with them. Actually, we’re going to meet with them,” the president also said. 

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that both Israel and Iran are fatigued from fighting each other, which is why he believes the conflict is now over. 

“They fought very, very hard and very viciously, very violently. And they were both satisfied to go home and get out. Can it start again? I guess someday it can, it could maybe start soon. I think a big telltale sign was when, as you know, Iran — somewhat by not much — violated the ceasefire. And Israel had the planes going out that morning. There were a lot of them, 52 of them. And I said, ‘you got to get them back.’ And they brought them back. They didn’t do anything. They brought them back. It was very good. I thought it was amazing, actually,” Trump added. 

Trump was referencing a post he made on his Truth Social account early Tuesday in which he warned Israel not to drop bombs on Iran, or it would constitute a “major violation” of a ceasefire between the two sides. 

“I think the war ended actually when we hit the various nuclear sites with the planes,” Trump also said during a press conference following a NATO summit in the Netherlands. 

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration’s airstrikes on Iran have reasserted the credibility of American deterrence, “which is like no other.” 

“We think it’s over. I don’t they are going to be going back at each other, I don’t think so,” Trump said about Israel and Iran. 

A ceasefire that Trump announced earlier this week appears to be taking hold between both countries. The president spoke to the media Wednesday at the conclusion of a NATO summit in the Netherlands.

“Not only have we dealt decisively with the critical threat of Iran’s nuclear program,
which was what I wanted. I said, ‘Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.’ I’ve said that for 15 years, long before I decided to do the political thing. But we’ve also reasserted the credibility of American deterrence, which is like no other,” Trump added. 

President Donald Trump was hailed at the 2025 NATO Summit after the U.S. struck Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte praised Trump as a “man of strength” and a “man of peace.”

“I just want to recognize your decisive action on Iran,” Rutte said at the start of his joint remarks with the president. “You are a man of strength, but you are also a man of peace. And the fact that you are now also successful in getting this ceasefire done between Israel and Iran— I really want to commend you for that. I think this is important for the whole world.”

Rutte also praised Trump’s effort to get NATO members to pay more and said the president was “flying into another big success” after all countries—except Spain—agreed to spend 5% of their GDP on defense. He added that Trump achieved something “NO American president in decades could get done.”

Leaders of NATO member states had mixed reactions to the strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, with several calling for de-escalation while acknowledging the threat a nuclear Iran would pose to global security.

“Iran’s nuclear program is a grave threat to international security. Iran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, and the US has taken action to alleviate that threat,” U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote on X. 

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Wednesday that his country’s nuclear facilities had been “badly damaged” by the Trump administration’s airstrikes. 

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Baghaei refused to go into detail, according to the Associated Press, but conceded the Sunday strikes by American B-2 bombers using bunker buster bombs had been significant. 

“Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure,” he said. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

U.S. airstrikes set Iran’s nuclear program
back “many years,” the Israel Atomic Energy Commission assesses.

“The devastating U.S. strike on Fordow destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable,” the commission said in a statement the White House provided to Fox News Wednesday. “We assess that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other elements of Iran’s military nuclear program, has set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years,” it said.

“This achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material,” it added.

Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich and Peter Doocy contributed to this report. 

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei is slamming text messages that President Donald Trump received from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. 

“Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action on Iran. That was truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do,” Rutte wrote to Trump as he flew to the NATO summit in the Netherlands on Tuesday. 

Trump shared the messages in a post on Truth Social. 

Baqaei then said Wednesday that “It is disgraceful, despicable and irresponsible for NATO’s SG to congratulate a ‘truly extraordinary’ criminal act of aggression against a sovereign State. 

 “Who endorses an injustice lacks integrity. Who supports a crime is regarded as complicit,” he added. 

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that Moscow is not planning
to supply Iran with nuclear warheads, after President Donald Trump mocked him for suggesting that other countries would step in and provide Iran with nuclear weapons after the U.S. strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities. 

Medvedev, now the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, originally said Sunday that Iran would continue to advance its nuclear program and would receive assistance from other nations to do so.

Although Medvedev did not specify any countries, he clarified later Monday that he was not talking about Russia. 

“I condemn the U.S. strike on Iran
— it failed to achieve its objectives,” Medvedev said in a Monday post on X. “However, Russia has no intention of supplying nuclear weapons to Iran because, unlike Israel, we are parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.” Medvedev’s statement came after Trump called him out by name in a post on Truth Social following the Russian leader’s original Sunday remarks. 

“Did I hear Former President Medvedev, from Russia, casually throwing around the ‘N word’ (Nuclear!), and saying that he and other Countries would supply Nuclear Warheads to Iran? Did he really say that or, is it just a figment of my imagination? If he did say that, and, if confirmed, please let me know, IMMEDIATELY. The ‘N word’ should not be treated so casually. I guess that’s why Putin’s ‘THE BOSS,’” Trump said in a Monday Truth Social Post. 

Iran reportedly executed three prisoners on Wednesday for allegedly spying for Israel. 

Iran identified the three men as Azad Shojaei, Edris Aali and Iraqi national Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul, the Associated Press reported, citing the state-run IRNA news agency. 

The hangings happened in Urmia Prison in Iran’s West Azerbaijan province. 

IRNA cited Iran’s judiciary for the news, saying the men had been accused of bringing “assassination equipment” into the country. 

Wednesday’s executions bring the total number of hangings for espionage around the war up to six. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump thanked former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush after he praised the president’s decision to order strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“Thank you to Jeb Bush — Very much appreciated!” Trump declared in a Tuesday Truth Social post.

Bush, the chairman of the organization United Against Nuclear Iran, issued a statement with several others from the group hailing the president’s move.

“We applaud President Trump and the United States for this decision—one of the most important of the 21st century,” the statement declared, calling it “an act of courage, clarity, and historical necessity.”

“President Trump’s decision to neutralize Iran’s regime’s nuclear program is a watershed moment—one that reasserts American strength, restores deterrence, and sends an unmistakable message to rogue regimes: the era of impunity is over. Where others delayed and wavered, President Trump acted,” the statement asserted, in part.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Israel is working on a report confirming the “total obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear facilities following U.S. airstrikes. 

“It was obliteration. And you’ll see that — and it’s going to come out. Israel is doing a report on it now, I understand. And I was told that they said it was total obliteration. You know, they have guys that go in there after the hit, and they said it was total obliteration,” Trump said on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in the Netherlands. 

Reports have cited a leaked preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment that said Trump’s strikes on Iran did not destroy three targeted nuclear sites. 

“It’s very tough to rebuild because the whole thing has collapsed,” Trump said in reference to Iran’s underground Fordow facility. “In other words, inside it’s all collapsed. Nobody can get in to see it because it’s collapsed. You can’t go in to see a room that has, you know, 10 million tons of rock in it. And the tunnels are totally collapsed.” 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Wednesday that Beijing “is following closely the developments in the Middle East” and that “We hope to see a lasting and effective ceasefire.” 

“China and Iran enjoy traditional friendship between our peoples,” he added. “China stands ready to maintain the friendly cooperation with Iran for the benefit of the two peoples and provide positive factors for peace and stability in the Middle East.” 

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that “China can now continue to purchase Oil from Iran.” 

“Hopefully, they will be purchasing plenty from the U.S., also. It was my Great Honor to make this happen!” Trump added on Truth Social after announcing a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said leakers are “professional stabbers” after reports cited a leaked preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment that said President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran did not destroy three targeted nuclear sites.

“On the stuff about the intelligence, this is what a leaker is telling you,” Rubio told reporters. “The intelligence says that’s the game these people play. They read it, and then they go out and characterize it the way they want to characterize. And they’re leakers this is the game they play.”

“Here’s a fact: the conversion facility — which, you can’t do a nuclear weapon without conversion facility. We can’t even find … where it used to be on the map. You can’t even find where it used to be because the whole thing is blackened out. It’s gone. It’s wiped out. Then we dropped 12 of the strongest bombs on the planet, right down the hole in two places. Everything underneath that mountain is in bad shape,” he continued.

“I refer you to the statement of the IAEA, Mister Grossi,” Rubio added. “You know what he said? He said there was Iran the way it looked the day before the attack and what their nuclear program looks like now. Two very different things. They are way behind where they were just seven days ago. Now anything in the world can be rebuilt, but now we know where it is and if they try to rebuild it, we’ll have options there as well.”

Rubio also said “these leakers are professional stabbers.”

“They go out and they read this stuff and then they tell you what it says, against the law. But they characterize it for you in a way that’s absolutely false,” he said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon is conducting a leak investigation with the FBI after reports cited a leaked preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment that said President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran did not destroy three targeted nuclear sites.

“When you talk to people who built the bombs, understand what those bombs can do and deliver those bombs, they landed precisely where they were supposed to, Hegseth told reporters. “So it was a flawless mission … Any assessment that tells you something otherwise is speculating with other motives. And we know that because when you actually look at the report — by the way, it was a top secret report — it was preliminary, it was low confidence. All right. …  And we believe far more likely severe and obliterated. So this is a political motive here.”

“Of course we’re doing a leak investigation with the FBI right now because this information is for internal purposes. Battle damage assessments,” Hegseth told reporters when asked about a possible probe. “And CNN and others are trying to spin it to make the president look bad when this was an overwhelming success.”

President Donald Trump said Iran will not be building bombs “for a very long time” and “the last thing they want to do” is enrich uranium.

Trump was asked while speaking to reporters at a NATO summit in The Hague what his response was to the Iranian foreign minister saying the country will continue to enrich uranium.

“The last thing they want to do is enrich anything right now,” Trump said. “They want to recover, and we won’t let that happen.”

“Look, I’ve had a relationship over the last four days. They agreed to the ceasefire. And it was a very informal agreement. They both said, that’s enough, and they both said it. But, no, they won’t do that. The last thing they want to do is enrich. They’re not looking to fill that void,” he continued.

“Can you imagine after all of that, they’re going to say, ‘oh, let’s go and do a bomb?’” He added. “You know, there could be a day in the future and then somebody else taking our place will be saying, don’t do it. And maybe they won’t do it as well. I don’t know, but, they’re not going to have a bomb and they’re not going to enrich, and we believe all of this stuff is down there.”

Trump said he does not believe Iran has “nearly the time.”

“I think it was just a tremendous victory for everybody … Israel got, hit very hard, especially the last couple of days,” Trump said. “Israel has hit really hard. Those ballistic missiles, boy, they took out a lot of buildings and they’ve been great. Netanyahu should be very proud of himself. And they’ve really been great, but they’re not going to be building bombs for a long time.”