US President Donald Trump’s envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, has said that the United States will not allow Iran to enrich uranium or build nuclear weapons. He told CNBC that these are “red lines” that must not be crossed.
“We achieved our objective and so did Israel,” Witkoff said while speaking about the conflict in the region. “We can’t have weaponization. That will destabilise the entire region. Everyone will then need a bomb and we just can’t have that.”
Despite the recent war between Iran and Israel, Witkoff said that talks between the US and Iran were still moving in a positive direction. He said the discussions so far were “promising” and that Washington hoped to reach a long-term peace deal with Tehran.
CIA CONFIRMS MAJOR DAMAGE TO IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Meanwhile, the head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), John Ratcliffe, confirmed that Iran’s nuclear program had been badly hit by US airstrikes. According to Ratcliffe, it will take Iran “years” to rebuild what it has lost.
“This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years,” Ratcliffe said in an official statement.
These strikes were carried out after Israel launched a surprise bombing campaign on June 13. The Israeli attacks killed top Iranian military leaders, several nuclear scientists, and destroyed missile bases and nuclear sites. Iran fought back by firing missiles at Israel. For the first time, many of these missiles managed to get past Israel’s defence systems.
According to Iranian officials, 610 people were killed and almost 5,000 injured in Iran during the conflict. However, these numbers have not been independently verified because of strict controls on media access in Iran. On the Israeli side, 28 people were killed.
Two days before the war ended, the US joined Israel in bombing Iranian nuclear sites. Amongst the targets were deeply buried facilities protected under mountains. The US used powerful bunker-busting bombs to strike the nuclear centres in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
A few days ago, Iran claimed there were no radioactive leaks after the American attacks. But on Wednesday, Tehran admitted that its nuclear facilities had been “badly damaged.”
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