Updates: Trump warns Israel not to attack Iran as fragile ceasefire holds

Read more on whether the Iran-Israel ceasefire will hold here.

An opinion piece on how Israel failed in its attack on Iran can be found here.

And read here about how Iran “expressed regret” to Qatar over Tehran’s missile attack on a US military base.

• The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran has appeared to hold despite an Iranian missile strike and an Israeli attack on Tehran that took place after it went into effect.
• US President Donald Trump said he was “really unhappy” with Israel and used an expletive to voice frustration over the exchange of attacks between the two countries.
• Both Iran and Israel have claimed victory in the war and warned they were ready to renew hostilities if the other attacks.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “will act with the same determination” if Iran tries to rebuild its nuclear programme.
• Several US media outlets reported that Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities did not destroy the sites and only set back Iran’s nuclear programme by months.
• According to medical sources, Israeli attacks killed at least 86 Palestinians – including 56 aid seekers – in Gaza.

The Washington Post has joined other outlets in reporting that a top-secret US intelligence assessment has concluded that the attacks on Iran only set back the Iranian nuclear programme by months.

It reported that the intelligence findings assessed that US bombardment “failed to destroy the core components” of Iran’s nuclear programme, citing an unidentified source as saying that Tehran’s uranium stockpiles are unaffected.

The White House did not deny the existence of the assessment but said it is “flat-out wrong”.

Republican Senator Rand Paul has cast doubt over claims that Iran was close to getting a nuclear weapon and raised questions over the effects of the US and Israeli bombardment of the country.

“Does this stop them from getting a nuclear weapon, or does it spur them to get a nuclear weapon? I think that’s an open question; we’ll find out over time,” Paul told Bannon’s War Room podcast.

Trump on Sunday said that a full “payload” of bombs “obliterated” Iran’s Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites. Iranian officials, meanwhile, have not detailed the extent of the damage and have attempted to downplay the significance of the hits.

US air strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities “effectively fulfilled our narrow objective: to degrade Iran’s capacity to produce a nuclear weapon”, acting US envoy to the United Nations Dorothy Shea says.

“These strikes – in accordance with the inherent right to collective self-defence, consistent with the UN Charter – aimed to mitigate the threat posed by Iran to Israel, the region and to, more broadly, international peace and security,” Shea told the 15-member UN Security Council.

US President Donald Trump has said the strikes over the weekend “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities.

A preliminary US intelligence assessment has determined the US strikes over the weekend on Iranian nuclear facilities have set back Tehran’s programme by only a matter of months, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters news agency.

Yair Lapid has praised Israel’s war on Iran as “one of the most glorious operations in the history of wars”.

But he added the time has come finish the attack on the Gaza Strip.

“Now we need to bring back the hostages and end the war in Gaza. To set Israel on a new path,” said Lapid in a video message on social media.

Lapid has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the security apparatus under his leadership of an “unpardonable failure” for not preventing the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack.

Moscow has condemned the air strikes on Iran by the United States and Israel, accusing both countries of violating the UN Charter.

“The Russian Federation strongly condemns the attacks on Iran, including its peaceful nuclear infrastructure, which is subject to IAEA safeguards,” Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya told the UN Security Council.

“The actions of the US and Israel directly violated the UN Charter,” he added.

Iranians are holding nationwide rallies to celebrate what they view as a win over Israel as the ceasefire goes into effect.

Watch our video report below:

The UN secretary-general has called on Iran and Israel to fully adhere to the ceasefire.

Posting on X, António Guterres said he “welcomed President Trump’s announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran” and urged both sides to respect it in full.

“The fighting must stop,” he wrote, adding that “the people of the two countries have already suffered too much”.

“It is my sincere hope that this ceasefire can be replicated in the other conflicts in the region,” said Guterres.

I very much welcome President Trump’s announcement of a cease-fire between Israel and Iran.

I urge the two countries to respect it fully.

The fighting must stop.

The people of the two countries have already suffered too much.

It is my sincere hope that this ceasefire can…

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) June 24, 2025

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon told reporters, “We will have to speak and negotiate and make sure that we will not repeat and get to the situation where we were 12 days ago, where we had a major threat in the Middle East”.

While it’s still too early to assess all the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, he said, “We know we were able to push back the programme, we were able to remove the imminent threat that we had.”

As for calls for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Danon said Israel hopes to renew negotiations on the truce proposal that US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff put on the table.

He added he has no doubt Israel’s ability to confront threats it faced during the conflict will lead other countries to normalise relations with his country.

In response to a question, Danon said, “I think that President Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.”

Key progressive US Senator Bernie Sanders has penned an opinion piece for Fox News warning against going to war with Iran.

Sanders argued that President Trump had no legal power to order the strikes against Iran without congressional authorisation, stressing that “nobody seriously believes that Iran is a military threat” to the United States.

Sanders also hit out at Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the Israeli prime minister urged the US to invade Iraq in the early 2000s.

“Netanyahu should not be dictating US foreign and military policy,” the US senator wrote, accusing the Israeli government of “systematically destroying the Palestinian people”.

Numerous rights groups and UN experts have accused Israel of carrying out a genocide in Gaza – “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

At a time when the working families of our country face major crises in housing, health care, education and other areas, we should be investing our resources in improving life for the American people, not wasting money on a war with Iran.

Read my op-ed in Fox News: pic.twitter.com/uY8AIzwcu4

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 24, 2025

We reported earlier that CNN published a report saying an intelligence assessment concluded that US strikes “did not destroy the core components” of Iran’s nuclear programme.

The New York Times also reported that the attack set back the Iranian nuclear programme by “only a few months”.

The White House has now refuted the news reports while appearing to confirm the intelligence assessment exists.

“This alleged ‘assessment’ is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a social media post.

🚨FAKE NEWS CNN STRIKES AGAIN:

This alleged "assessment" is flat-out wrong and was classified as "top secret" but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community.

The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean…

— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) June 24, 2025

Rosemary DiCarlo, the United Nations’ under-secretary-general for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, told the UN Security Council the truce is also an opportunity to peacefully resolve the Iran nuclear issue.

“Diplomacy, dialogue, and verification remain the best option to ensure the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme and to bring about concrete economic benefits to the people of Iran,” she said.

DiCarlo spoke at a council meeting on the remaining UN sanctions on Iranian nuclear activities and transfers under the 2015 nuclear deal it signed with six key nations in 2015, a deal that will expire in October. President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the agreement in 2018.

Highlighting Donald Trump’s call for Israel to stop bombing Iran after the ceasefire came into effect, James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, has urged the US president to pressure the Israeli government to stop the war on Gaza.

After Trump’s public warnings to Israel against carrying out strikes in Tehran, Israel only launched a minor attack, allowing the ceasefire to take hold.

“President Trump: If this really happened as you said it did, then why not use your power to tell the Israelis to end the genocide in Gaza & their intensified oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank?” Zogby asked in a social media post.

“Just tell Israel to stop, turn around, & leave. Go for it!”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has denied earlier reports that there was a drone attack in the northwestern city of Tabriz.

Earlier on Tuesday, Iranian media said air defences were activated in the area amid a shaky ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

The Palestinian group’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, says its fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades at an Israeli force sheltering in a house in southern Khan Younis, then opened fire.

The group claimed all the soldiers in the force were killed or injured.

Hamas established the Qassam Brigades in 1992 to support its objective of armed resistance against Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory. The name is inspired by Syrian freedom fighter Ezzedine al-Qassam, who struggled against European colonisers in the Levant.

Citing a US intelligence assessment, CNN reports that US President Donald Trump’s air strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites “did not destroy the core components” of the country’s nuclear programme.

“So the assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops,” an unidentified person familiar with the findings told the network.

Trump hailed the attack as a “spectacular” success, claiming Iran’s nuclear sites were “obliterated”.

The United States has committed $30m to a controversial group operating in Gaza despite mounting criticism over its role in deadly aid-site ambushes by the Israeli military, a news report says.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), established in February, has been accused by UN officials and international rights groups of enabling attacks on civilians by directing them to food distribution sites where Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire.

UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territoriy, Francesca Albanese, has previously called the GHF operation “humanitarian camouflage” and “an essential tactic of this genocide”.

Reuters news agency reported that while Washington has previously offered diplomatic support to GHF, this marks its first known financial contribution to the group, which contracts private US military and logistics firms to deliver aid into the besieged enclave.