Israel Iran Ceasefire LIVE Updates: Iran's supreme leader congratulates people on victory over Israel

Senators are set to meet with top national security officials Thursday as some lawmakers question President Donald Trump's decision to bomb three Iranian nuclear sites and whether those strikes were ultimately successful.

The classified briefing, originally scheduled for Tuesday, also comes as the Senate is expected to vote this week on a resolution that would require congressional approval if Trump were to order another strike on Iran.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that Iran was not able to evacuate nuclear materials from a deep underground site bombed by long-range US planes last week.

"Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!" Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform, referring to the secretive Fordo site hit by B-2 bombers.

Trump said that satellite photos of a large number of trucks outside the site ahead of the US raid only showed crews attempting to protect Fordo with concrete "to cover up the top of the shafts."

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said he was unaware of any intelligence suggesting Iran had moved any of its highly enriched uranium to shield it from U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear program over the weekend.

"I'm not aware of any intelligence that I've reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be, moved or otherwise," Hegseth said.

He told viewers that the US had only intervened in the war because “it felt that if it did not intervene, the Zionist regime would be utterly destroyed.”

But he said that the US “achieved no gains from this war."

Khamenei says US will pay “heavy price” if it attacks Iran again, warning Iran has “access to key US centers” in region.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei in his first public statement since end of Israel-Iran war said Iran achieved victory over Israel, adding that the US gained nothing from entering the war.

“I offer my congratulations on the victory over the fallacious Zionist regime,” he said in a post on X.

Germany on Thursday urged Iran to keep cooperating with the UN's nuclear watchdog, calling a vote by Iranian lawmakers calling for a suspension of cooperation "a totally wrong signal".

Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told a press conference that Germany "urges the Iranian government not to go down this path".

US President Donald Trump has advocated for the corruption trial against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be cancelled or that the leader be given a pardon. 

In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump said he learnt that the Israeli PM is due in court on June 30, and wrote: “Bibi Netanyahu's trial should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero, who has done so much for the State (of Israel).”

Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 in Israel on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, as per a Reuters report. He has pleaded not guilty, it added. 

A day after the NATO summit where the US and its European allies agreed to pump defence spending, China on June 26 hosted defence ministers from Iran and Russia for a meeting in Qingdao, the AFP reported. 

This also comes amid geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, where a ceasefire has been declared between Israel and Iran after 12 days of fighting, it added.

Top national security officials from the Donald Trump administration are set to give a “classified” briefing to US Senators on the decision to bomb three nuclear targets in Iran, and whether the exercise was a success, AP reported.

This comes as the US Senate is expected to vote on a resolution this week, which would mandate Donald Trump to seek congressional approval for any more future strikes on Iran, it added. 

Qatar Airways CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer said on Wednesday that all passengers from flights that were diverted as Iran launched a missile attack on a U.S. airbase in Qatar were cleared within 24 hours.

About 20,000 passengers in all were affected by the flight diversions, he added in a statement.

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he believed the war between Iran and Israel was finished, as both sides were keen to end the fight.

Asked why he was confident the conflict was over, Trump told reporters: "I dealt with both and they're both tired, exhausted."

"They fought very, very hard and very viciously, very violently, and they were both satisfied to go home and get out," said Trump.

India on Wednesday evacuated 296 Indian citizens and four Nepalese nationals from Iran amid the ongoing conflict with Israel, officials said.

With this, the number of Indian nationals evacuated from Iran so far under Operation Sindhu stands at 3,154, they said.

"#OperationSindhu update 296 Indian and 4 Nepalese nationals were evacuated from Iran on a special flight that arrived in New Delhi from Mashhad at 16:30 hrs on 25th June. 3154 Indian nationals have now been brought home from Iran as part of #OperationSindhu," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal posted on X.

President Donald Trump says US and Iranian officials will talk next week, continuing a dialogue that was interrupted by the recent war between Israel and Tehran.

“I'll tell you what, we're going to talk with them next week, with Iran. We may sign an agreement, I don't know," Trump told a press conference during the NATO summit in the Netherlands.

Donald Trump insisted that US strikes delivered a crushing blow to Iran’s nuclear program despite a preliminary American intelligence assessment suggesting that the assault inflicted only a marginal setback.

“This was a devastating attack, and it knocked them for a loop,” Trump said as his administration deployed a phalanx of top officials to defend his claims that Iran’s nuclear program was “completely and fully obliterated.”

Lebanese armed group Hezbollah hailed what it called its ally Iran's victory over Israel after 12 days of war, declaring it the start of a "new historical phase".

In a statement, Hezbollah offered its "most sincere congratulations" to the Islamic Republic, praising its "glorious divine victory".

The victory, it said, was "manifested in the precise and painful strikes it launched" against Israel, as well as "the lightning response to the American aggression against its nuclear facilities".

Israel's two natural gas fields that supply Egypt and Jordan and were shut down nearly two weeks ago due to the Iran-Israel conflict have resumed operations.

Two of Israel's three gas fields, Chevron-operated Leviathan and Energean's Karish situated off its Mediterranean coast, provide the bulk of exports to Egypt and Jordan, and have been shut since June 13.

Iranian lawmakers voted in favour of suspending cooperation with the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, state TV said. This comes after a 12-day war that saw Israeli and US strikes on nuclear facilities.

"The International Atomic Energy Agency, which refused to even marginally condemn the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, put its international credibility up for auction," Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, according to state TV.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson says its nuclear installations 'badly damaged' by American strikes.

Donald Trump once again raised questions about America’s commitment to defend its allies should they come under attack as he prepared to join a NATO summit in the Netherlands.

He said his commitment to Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty – the organization’s collective security guarantee – “depends on your definition.”

“There’s numerous definitions of Article 5. You know that, right?” Trump said. “But I’m committed to being their friends.” He signaled that he would give a more precise definition of what Article 5 means to him once he is at the summit.

Seven Israeli soldiers were killed Tuesday in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis when their armored vehicle was struck by an explosive, an Israeli military official said Wednesday.

The announcement comes a day after witnesses and hospitals in Gaza said Israeli forces and drones opened fire toward hundreds of Palestinians waiting for aid in separate incidents in southern and central Gaza early Tuesday, killing at least 44.

Israel Iran Ceasefire LIVE:  Iran’s Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh has arrived in China for his first known trip abroad since the war with Israel began.

Nasirzadeh will attend a meeting of defense ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states in the eastern city of Qingdao, according to a social media account affiliated with state broadcaster China Central Television. The gathering on Wednesday and Thursday will be hosted by Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun.

Pope Leo XIV urged the warring sides in the Israel-Iran war to “reject the logic of bullying and revenge” and choose a path of dialogue and diplomacy to reach peace as he expressed solidarity with all Christians in the Middle East.

Speaking at his weekly Wednesday general audience, the American pope said he was following “with attention and hope” recent developments in the war. He cited the biblical exhortation: “A nation shall not raise the sword against another nation.”

US President Donald Trump said that the intelligence following the strikes on Iranian nuclear sites was inconclusive, but also suggested the damage could have been severe.

"The intelligence was very inconclusive. The intelligence says we don't know. It could've been very severe. That's what the intelligence suggests," Trump told reporters ahead of meeting with world leaders at a NATO summit.

"It was very severe. There was obliteration," he added.

Iranian conversion facility can't even be found on the map, it is wiped out," said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as reported by Reuters. 

Iran 'won't be building bombs for a long time',  says Trump. (AFP)

A leaked preliminary US intelligence report on assessment of Donald Trump's strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities has concluded that the bombing did not destroy the nuclear program but only set it back by a few months – contrary to the claims made by the President. It further claims that despite the strikes and with little damage Iran's nuclear sites have sustained, Tehran could restart its nuclear program within months.

Read the story here.

Iran's parliament approved a bill on Wednesday to suspend cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, state-affiliated news outlet Nournews reported.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that China can continue to purchase Iranian oil after Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire.

"China can now continue to purchase Oil from Iran. Hopefully, they will be purchasing plenty from the U.S., also," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Politico on Wednesday that Iran is "much further away from a nuclear weapon" after a U.S. strike on Iran's three main nuclear sites over the weekend, Reuters reported.

"The bottom line is, they are much further away from a nuclear weapon today than they were before the president took this bold action," Rubio told Politico.

"Significant, very significant, substantial damage was done to a variety of different components, and we’re just learning more about it,” he added.