Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Friday doubled down on assertions by the Trump administration that US attacks on three Iranian nuclear sites had obliterated Tehran's nuclear capabilities, saying the results were ever clearer.
"The more we report and the more we see, the more we understand how devastating those attacks were on all three of those nuclear sites," Hegseth told Pentagon pool reporters on Friday.
US attacks on June 22 hit Iran's nuclear sites of Fordow, Esfahan and Natanz.
Hegseth's remarks come after a report by NBC News on Thursday citing current and former US officials saying just one of the three nuclear facilities struck by the US in Iran last month has been destroyed.
That assessment, which showed that Fordow was set back as long as two years, was briefed to US lawmakers, Defense Department officials and allied countries in recent days.
An initial Pentagon assessment suggested the attacks had only set Iran's nuclear program back by months, but subsequent analysis released by the Central Intelligence Agency said it would take Tehran years to recover.
Trump on Wednesday said Iran's nuclear program had been dealt an irreparable blow by the US attacks and that he was in no rush to resume negotiations with Tehran despite its alleged eagerness.
A festival organized by Iran's US-sanctioned stated broadcaster has brought American, European and other international journalists and activists to Iran where they expressed solidarity with the Islamic Republic following a 12-day war with Israel.
The four-day event, held from July 17 to 21 under the slogan "Condemnation of Terrorism Against Media," is hosted by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), whose headquarters was bombed by Israel during its military assault on Iran.
American journalists and activists including Calla Walsh and Jennifer Koonings appear in videos and photos shared on the festival’s official X account, in which they voice support for Iran and criticize US foreign policy.
“Living in the United States, we’re constantly fed negative propaganda about places like Iran, portraying them as evil. But it’s so ridiculous that if you have two functioning brain cells, you know none of it is true," said New York-based journalist Koonings, speaking in front of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) drone.
"The US empire is the most criminal and evil entity on the planet,” she added.
Both IRIB and the IRGC are on the United States sanctions list.
“It is the greatest honor of my life to be visiting the Islamic Republic of Iran right now, at this moment, while it is under genocidal siege by the United States and the Zionist entity,” said Boston-based activist Calla Walsh, standing at the IRGC aerospace expo, with missiles in the background.
Iran's outreach to radical influencers
Jason Brodsky, the policy director of the US-based advocacy group UANI, says the Revolutionary Guards and Iranian intelligence services "have experience using conferences or junkets as a recruitment lure for Americans on the far left and right."
Entities like Sobh Festival are "trying to make inroads with radical US-based influencers and those individuals... with whom Iran's regime feels an ideological comradery," Brodsky said on X, urging the US policymakers and law enforcement to be vigilant.
The US state department this week launched a campaign urging US citizens not to visit Iran. Nationals from Britain, France and Germany among others are currently in Iranian detention, in moves condemned by their governments.
Other festival participants include activists, filmmakers, and journalists from the UK, Spain, Germany, Canada, Venezuela, and Brazil.
Attendees have been taken to locations attacked during Israel’s 12-day campaign.
In another video posted on X, German filmmaker Andreas Landeck is shown speaking through a translator. A male voice asks in Persian, “What are you seeing through your lens about these crimes?" to which Landeck responds: “I tried to find the personal belongings.”
Iran continues to be ranked among the world’s worst countries for press freedom.
According to Reporters Without Borders, “Iran has reinforced its position as one of the most repressive countries in terms of press freedom, with journalists and independent media constantly persecuted through arbitrary arrests and harsh sentences handed down after unfair trials before revolutionary courts.”
In June, the IRGC detained the family member of an Iran International anchor in Tehran to pressure the journalist to stop working with the network, in a move condemned by the network.
Two female journalists who covered the 2022 death of a young woman named Mahsa Amini in morality police custody spent 17 months in prison.
Amini’s death sparked widespread protests across Iran and drew international condemnation. The unrest and media coverage of them was violently quashed.
The European Union has proposed to Iran an extension to a deadline for invoking renewed United Nations sanctions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, as nuclear diplomacy appears to gain pace following a 12-day Mideast war last month.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke with his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany, along with the EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Thursday.
During the call, Kallas offered an extension of the snapback deadline under the nuclear deal, Wall Street Journal reporter Laurence Norman wrote on X citing sources, provided Iran resume cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and place specific limits on its enriched uranium stockpile.
Germany’s foreign minister, however, struck a tougher tone on Friday, vowing to trigger the snapback mechanism if no deal is reached by the end of summer.
"We are firmly determined, firstly, to do everything possible to achieve a negotiated diplomatic solution (on Iran nuclear program), but secondly, we are equally determined, if that fails, to activate the snapback mechanism," Johann Wadephul said.
Axios reported on Friday that senior diplomats from Iran and the three European countries are scheduled to meet next week, possibly in Vienna or Geneva.
Iran is expected to be represented by Deputy Foreign Ministers Kazem Gharibabadi and Majid Takht Ravanchi, the report added citing a source with knowledge of the matter.
Iran is reviewing a request from the three European countries to resume nuclear talks, the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News reported citing sources. However, the time and venue for the potential talks have yet to be determined, the report added.
Tasnim confirmed the talks are expected to be held at the level of deputy foreign ministers.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the offer to extend the snapback deadline is a one-off proposal and any extension would depend on China and Russia at the UN Security Council.
“Iran was non-committal in response,” Norman said.
Under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, any party to a now lapsed 2015 nuclear agreement, including France, Germany, Britain, Russia or China—can file a complaint accusing Iran of non-compliance.
If no agreement is reached within 30 days to maintain sanctions relief, all previous UN sanctions would automatically “snap back,” including arms embargoes, cargo inspections and missile restrictions.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson on Monday criticized the possibility of a snapback triggered by Europe, warning that “Iran will deliver a proportionate and appropriate response if European parties move to re-activate the UN snapback mechanism.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was injured during an Israeli airstrike last month, two US intelligence sources told CBS News, confirming reports from Iranian state media.
The sources said Pezeshkian was attending a Supreme National Security Council meeting when the strike occurred and confirmed that Iranian state media reports about the incident were accurate. According to those reports, he was hurt while escaping through an emergency shaft. CBS said it remains unclear whether he was deliberately targeted.
IRGC-linked Fars News Agency said the June 16 strike hit a building in Tehran’s Shahrak-e Bagheri district during a high-level meeting attended by Pezeshkian, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and judiciary chief Mohseni Ejei.
The outlet said six precision-guided munitions targeted entry and exit points, cutting power and forcing officials to flee through a prepared emergency hatch. It said Pezeshkian and others suffered minor leg injuries.
The report said the attack resembled an earlier Israeli assassination attempt on Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Authorities are investigating whether intelligence used in the strike came from an insider, according to Fars.
Pezeshkian previously told US commentator Tucker Carlson that Israel attempted to assassinate him during the meeting. “They did try, yes… but they failed,” he said.
The 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran killed hundreds in Iran and 28 people in Israel. Among those killed were Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of the Revolutionary Guard, and Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of its missile program. The US also carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites during the fighting.
Any new nuclear deal must meet what Iran describes as fair and balanced terms, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday, after a call with European ministers who urged Tehran to return to talks before the end of August or face the possible return of UN sanctions.
“It was the US that withdrew from a two-year negotiated deal, coordinated by the EU in 2015, not Iran,” Araghchi wrote on X after a joint teleconference with the foreign ministers of France, Britain, Germany, and the EU’s top diplomat. “And it was the US that left the negotiation table in June this year and chose a military option instead, not Iran.”
“Any new round of talks is only possible when the other side is ready for a fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial nuclear deal,” he added.
Araghchi warned the EU and E3 powers to abandon “worn-out policies of threat and pressure,” referring specifically to the “snapback” mechanism, which he said they have “absolutely no moral and legal ground” to invoke.
EU urges immediate return to talks
A day earlier, a French diplomatic source said European ministers had pressed Araghchi to return to negotiations “immediately” during the same call. They also warned that if Iran does not make concrete progress toward a deal by the end of August, France, Britain and Germany would trigger the snapback mechanism, reimposing all UN sanctions.
The snapback, created under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, lets any party to the 2015 nuclear deal restore UN sanctions if Iran is found non-compliant. If no resolution is passed within 30 days to extend sanctions relief, all previous measures return automatically.
Tehran accuses US of using diplomacy as cover for war
Iranian state media reported Thursday that senior officials believe Washington is using diplomatic overtures to buy time for military preparations. “Our intelligence indicates Washington seeks talks to prepare for war, not peace,” an unnamed Iranian official told Press TV. The official also accused the US of trying to weaken Iran in advance of a broader regional conflict and said new talks would require firm guarantees.
US says Trump remains open to diplomacy
Despite last month’s joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, the Trump administration says it expects Iran to resume talks. “He has believed and continues to believe that diplomacy will work here,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Thursday. “They should be very grateful that President Trump is as generous of a man as he is.”
Still, US officials acknowledge there is currently “no prospect” for a quick return to negotiations, according to a senior official cited by journalist Laura Rozen.
Hardening Iranian position
Iran’s parliament and senior diplomats have said new talks cannot begin without clear preconditions, including guarantees against further military action. Araghchi and others have also demanded that any future agreement address issues such as Israel’s nuclear arsenal and accountability for the recent war.
Belgium’s parliament passed a resolution early Friday backing efforts to designate the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organization on the EU list, with lawmaker Darya Safai calling the move a strong political signal.
Safai, who led the years-long push, said the resolution was approved at 2:30 a.m. with 135 votes in favor, 14 abstentions, and none opposed. “Today is the day that justice will be served, a day that the victims of this regime will always remember as a victory against their murderers,” she wrote on X.
"My resolution to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of the Iranian regime as a terrorist organization was approved today in the Belgian Parliament," Safai added.
She said the resolution not only calls for the EU to designate the IRGC but also urges “the unconditional and immediate release of Ahmadreza Djalali” and an end to executions by Iranian authorities. Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian academic arrested in Iran in 2016, was sentenced to death on espionage charges, which he denies.
Safai described the IRGC as “a murder machine that not only wages war against the Iranian people in Iran, but also spreads terror and murder throughout the region through its proxies.” In an earlier post, she said the IRGC is involved in terrorism, arms trafficking, and support for groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis, and accused it of fueling conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, and Ukraine.
Safai’s proposal was backed earlier this month by the Belgian parliament’s foreign affairs committee. It had previously received political support from then-Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib.
The new Belgian government, led by Bart De Wever, reaffirmed that position in its coalition agreement, which said "The government advocates for the inclusion of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the European Union's list of terrorist organizations."
The IRGC, a powerful branch of Iran’s armed forces, was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019 under President Donald Trump. The US and Canada have urged their European allies to follow suit.