June 27, 2025 – Israel-Iran conflict

Our live coverage of the conflict between Israel and Iran has moved here.

Sen. Tim Kaine speaks on the Senate floor on Friday, June 27.

The Senate rejected a Democrat-pushed resolution Friday that aimed to rein in the president’s ability to use military action against Iran without congressional approval.

Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, originally introduced the resolution last week, under the War Powers Act of 1973, before President Donald Trump authorized US strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities. The resolution would have required congressional approval for any further strikes on Iran that are not in self-defense or due to imminent danger.

Lawmakers voted against advancing it to the Senate floor, 53-47.

GOP Sen. Rand Paul voted with Democrats to advance the resolution. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman voted against it.

Friday’s vote was a notable departure from a similar war powers vote in 2020 related to Iran, in which eight Republicans voted with Democrats, seven of whom are still in the Senate.

Across the Capitol: The House could bring up its own Democrat-led war powers resolution after July 4. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who has faced heavy backlash from the administration for criticizing the strikes on Iran, had also introduced a war powers resolution as well, but ultimately decided not to bring it up amid a ceasefire in the Iran-Israel conflict.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has sharply criticized members for demanding Trump receive congressional approval for strikes on Iran, adding that he doesn’t believe the War Powers Act is constitutional.

Iran’s foreign minister said that if US President Donald Trump wants a deal with Tehran, he should do away with his “unacceptable” tone toward Iran’s Supreme Leader.

Earlier in the day, Trump encouraged Khamenei to “tell the truth” after the Iranian leader declared victory over Israel and the United States.

“You have to tell the truth. You got beat to hell, and Israel was beat up, too,” Trump said.

Air Force Gen. Dan Caine leaves following a closed briefing on the situation in Iran for members of the US Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Thursday.

The US military did not use bunker-buster bombs on one of Iran’s largest nuclear sites last weekend because the site is so deep that the bombs likely would not have been effective, the United States’ top general told senators during a briefing on Thursday.

The comment by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, which was described by three people who heard his remarks and a fourth who was briefed on them, is the first known explanation given for why the US military did not use the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb against the Isfahan site in central Iran.

US officials believe Isfahan’s underground structures house nearly 60% of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, which Iran would need in order to ever produce a nuclear weapon.

US B2 bombers dropped over a dozen bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites. But Isfahan was only struck by Tomahawk missiles launched from a US submarine.

An early assessment produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency in the day after the US strikes said the attack did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program, including its enriched uranium, and likely only set the program back by months, CNN has reported.

It also said Iran may have moved some of the enriched uranium out of the sites before they were attacked.

Read more here.

An of overview of Iran's nuclear Fordow facility on Friday, June 27.

Earth-moving and excavation equipment are visible at Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility in new satellite imagery captured June 27 and shared by Maxar Technologies.

A zoomed out satellite image shows excavators at the tunnel entrances.

A closer view of excavators at the tunnel entrances.

Satellite image shows earthmoving equipment.

Remember: Fordow is Iran’s most important nuclear enrichment facility, buried deep inside a mountain to guard it from attacks, and was struck by Israeli and US airstrikes.

Iranian media has confirmed the death of another nuclear scientist in recent strikes in the country.

Soleiman Soleimani, from the Iran University of Science and Technology, was killed, according to a statement from the university, as cited by Iranian semi-official Tasnim News Agency.

Soleimani, a graduate of the university’s chemical engineering department, was a prominent nuclear scientist and was killed “following a series of criminal measures by the Zionist regime against the Islamic Republic of Iran’s scientific elite,” Tasnim reported.

Israel claims to have killed multiple high-profile Iranian nuclear scientists during its 12 days of attacks targeting Iran’s nuclear weapons program, top military ranks and missile bases.

According to a report published Monday by the Council on Foreign Relations, at least 10 Iranian scientists had been killed in the strikes as of then, including the former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Fereydoon Abbasi and the organization’s former deputy head Amir Hossein Feqhi.

And on Tuesday, Iranian state media announced the death of Mohammad Reza Seddighi Saber, who was working on Iran’s nuclear weapons program and was among multiple people sanctioned earlier this year by the US State Department and Treasury.

Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, departs after a briefing with members of Congress at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Friday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers that he wanted to meet “one-on-one” with Iranian leadership and not through a “third party,” according to Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul after an all-member classified briefing.

But the former Foreign Affairs Committee chairman was one of multiple House lawmakers who told CNN he was personally “skeptical” of the plan: “I’m clear-eyed about the ayatollah. I love this ‘give peace a chance’ thing, and let’s try. You have to try the negotiations. So we’ll do it for what, a month? Then they’re gonna go underground.”

President Donald Trump’s next steps on diplomacy with Iran, however, were not made clear, multiple lawmakers said.

Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said no one from the administration suggested “there were any overtures or discussions happening right now” on the diplomatic front.

And Trump himself fueled the uncertainty over his next steps with Iran, telling reporters this afternoon that future military strikes were indeed on the table if the US learned that Tehran was again working to enrich uranium.

President Donald Trump blasted Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a social media post today, casting serious doubt on any diplomatic progress between the two countries.

Trump said he had considered removing sanctions on Iran earlier this week, but the Iranian leader’s statement claiming victory over Israel and saying he would not surrender to the US caused Trump to abruptly drop those plans.

The president also claimed he personally held back Israel and US forces from assassinating Khamenei.

“I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life. I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH,” Trump added.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talks to CNN's Manu Raju on Friday.

House representatives received a classified briefing on Iran today. As CNN spoke to them after the briefing concluded, lawmakers appeared divided along party lines, with Republicans reinforcing their belief that the US strikes were effective and some Democrats expressing skepticism.

Here’s what to know:

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “Let me just say, I’m almost sorry I went to this briefing, because almost everything that was there is in the public domain,” the California Democrat said, downplaying the substance of the briefing. “A little bit additional information.” Pelosi also expressed skepticism about the extent of the damage done to Iran’s nuclear program.

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna: “So a lot of unanswered questions about how long this has actually set back the Iranian nuclear capability, and I still have a very strong view that ultimately we need verification and diplomacy to succeed,” he told CNN.

GOP Rep. Greg Murphy: The purpose of the US strikes was never to get rid of Iran’s nuclear material, but to eliminate certain aspects of Tehran’s nuclear program, he said. “Those were eliminated.”

GOP Rep. Tim Burchett: “I think there was a lot of relief in the room,” he said. “I’m very confident and the president made the right decision.”

Other key news:

• US position: President Donald Trump said he would “absolutely” consider bombing Iranian nuclear sites again if he thought it necessary. He added that he does not believe that Iran can “go back into nuclear any time soon.” The president also said he was “not really” concerned about secret nuclear sites in Iran when asked about that possibility, suggesting that the country is more focused on survival for the time being.

• Israel details damage caused in Iran: The Israel Defense Forces said it struck more than 900 targets, destroying 200 missile launchers, inside Iran during its unprecedented “Operation Rising Lion.” It killed 11 Iranian nuclear scientists and 30 senior security officials, including three top commanders. The strikes also destroyed aircraft and missile production sites, “thereby preventing the manufacture of thousands of additional missiles,” according to the IDF statement. CNN cannot independently verify these figures.

• Iranian assessment: President Masoud Pezeshkian, in a video message to a conference in Belarus, said that had Iran not responded to Israeli strikes this month, the situation could have escalated into a “full-scale and uncontrollable war in the region.” Claiming that Israel had targeted civilians, he said Israel “killed outside the norms of war.” The Iranian health ministry has said that 627 people were killed in Iran by Israeli military action.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrives for an IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, Austria, on Monday.

The Iranian parliament’s decision to suspend working with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, is because of the “regrettable role” played by the agency’s chief Rafael Grossi, Iran’s foreign minister said.

In a post on X, Abbas Araghchi accused Grossi of facilitating the United States and Israeli strikes in Iran, an accusation he has made previously, citing an IAEA report a day prior to the Israeli strike. The report had declared Iran was violating its nuclear nonproliferation obligations.

Grossi has denied that the report gave any country the green light to strike inside Iran.

The Iranian minister asserted that Iran has the right to “take any steps” to defend itself.

What the nuclear watchdog says: IAEA, meanwhile, released a statement Friday amid the fraught relationship with Iran, in which Grossi said nuclear facilities should “never be attacked.” The agency chief also stressed the need for IAEA inspectors to continue their activities in Iran.

The Iranian bill that would suspend cooperation with the agency is now on its final step before becoming law, having been sent to the country’s president for his signature, after being approved by the country’s Guardian Council on Thursday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar slammed Iran’s move toward suspending cooperation with the IAEA, saying the country “continues to mislead the international community and actively works to prevent effective oversight of its nuclear program.”

President Donald Trump speaks to the press at the White House on Friday.

President Donald Trump reiterated that “nothing was moved” from Iran’s nuclear sites, repeating his claims that enriched uranium wasn’t removed ahead of US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“I don’t believe that they’re going to go back into nuclear anytime soon. They spent over a trillion dollars on nuclear, and they never got it together, and nothing was moved from the site,” the president said to CNN’s Jeff Zeleny in the White House briefing room.

The US House of Representatives received a classified briefing on Iran earlier today, as the Trump administration projected confidence in the success of last weekend’s strikes but offered no new intelligence to support the president’s claim that Iran’s nuclear program was “obliterated.”

After Thursday’s Senate briefing, Democrats and Republicans disagreed on the known extent of the damage.

CNN reported Thursday that the Trump administration has been engaged in secret diplomatic efforts to bring Tehran back to the negotiating table.

President Donald Trump attends a media briefing at the White House on Friday.

President Donald Trump encouraged Iran’s supreme leader to “tell the truth” after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared victory over Israel and the United States.

Trump said both sides used their 12-day war to “get the hate out.”

“A lot of hate, a lot of hate. It would be great if they didn’t have that hate, but the last thing they’re thinking about is nuclear weapons right now,” he said.

A day earlier, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote off Khamenei’s comments as an exercise in saving face.

Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) on Capitol Hill in October 2023 in Washington, DC.

Following the all-House classified briefing on Iran, GOP Rep. Greg Murphy said the purpose of the US strikes was never to get rid of Iran’s nuclear material, but to eliminate certain aspects of Tehran’s nuclear program.

He argued, “People who are playing second-hand quarterback, they didn’t want us to send in troops. Do you want us to send in troops and really make sure? No, that’s not the answer. So, I think as far as what the purpose of the mission, the goals, I think those are well satisfied.”

Other GOP lawmakers weighed also weighed in. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee, told CNN: “I think there was a lot of relief in the room.”

“I’m very confident and the president made the right decision,” Burchett added.

Texas Republican Michael McCaul, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told CNN that “most of” the uranium is still at Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“There is enriched uranium in the facilities that moves around, but that was not the intent or the mission,” McCaul said.

Asked whether he’s concerned about where the uranium may be, McCaul said he thinks most of it remains at the facilities.

“My understanding is most of it’s still there, so we need a full accounting that’s why Iran has to come to the table directly with us, so the IAEA can account for every ounce of enriched uranium that’s there, I don’t think it’s going out of the country, I think it’s at the facilities,” McCaul said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

CNN’s Manu Raju and Nicky Robertson contributed reporting to this post.

US Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) at a House Rules Committee's hearing in Washington in May.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized Friday’s classified briefing for House members about the US strikes against Iran, saying she was “almost sorry” she attended and later adding she would not have authorized the mission.

Pelosi also expressed skepticism about the extent of the damage done to Iran’s nuclear program, after President Donald Trump’s claims that the Iran’s nuclear sites had been “obliterated” by the strikes.

“We do know, in the public domain, that the enriched uranium is still there. And that was never part of the goal. So … let’s just say, very clearly, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” she said.

Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California told CNN following the same briefing, “So a lot of unanswered questions about how long this has actually set back the Iranian nuclear capability, and I still have a very strong view that ultimately we need verification and diplomacy to succeed.”

CNN’s Annie Grayer contributed reporting to this post.

President Donald Trump answers questions at the White House on Friday.

President Donald Trump said Friday he would “absolutely” consider bombing Iranian nuclear sites again if he thought it necessary.

“Sure, without question, absolutely – it has to be unbelievable,” Trump told reporters in the White House briefing room when asked specifically if he would consider bombing the country if future intelligence reports offered a concerning conclusion on Iranian enrichment of uranium.

Trump said he does not believe that Iran can “go back into nuclear anytime soon,” following last weekend’s US strikes on their nuclear sites.

The administration has continued to project confidence in the success of the strikes but has not offered intelligence to support Trump’s claim that Iran’s nuclear program was, in his words, “obliterated.”

The president also said Friday he was “not really” concerned about secret nuclear sites in Iran when asked about that possibility, suggesting that the country is more focused on survival for the time being.

Defense Minister Israel Katz, then Israel's foreign minister, in Jerusalem in November 2024.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz says he’s instructed the military to prepare an “enforcement plan” against Iran following the 12-day conflict which saw Israel kill military targets and pound the country’s nuclear sites.

In a post on X Friday, Katz said the plan would include “maintaining Israel’s air superiority, preventing nuclear and missile development, and responding to Iranian support for terrorist activity.”

Katz described the Israeli operations against Iran as “12 days of brilliant action” that eliminated Iranian air defenses and destroyed its missile production.

“We eliminated senior security officials and leading scientists advancing the nuclear program, he said.

Katz ended his post: “A word of caution to the toothless serpent’s head in Tehran: Operation “Rising Lion” was only the preview of a new Israeli policy — after October 7th, immunity is over.”

The Commander of the Israeli Air Force, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar has also stressed the importance of air superiority. On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces released details of his briefing to air force commanders on the first day of the Israeli campaign.

“If you ask me: ‘Commander, what is the decisive element of victory? Is it Natanz? Is it 80 surface-to-surface missile launchers?” It is aircraft over Tehran whenever we choose — that’s a significant decisive component. Therefore, we need to get there, and we need to create the impact that will make them feel exposed — finished.

“And if you ask me what will bring us to that point, it’s only one thing: superiority, superiority, and once again — superiority,” Bar added.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson, center, speaks to the press at the US Capitol on Friday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that Iran must directly negotiate with the US, after leaving a classified all-member briefing on the recent US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

“And one of the things that was discussed this morning is that we now need Iran to engage with us in direct good faith talks, negotiations, not through third parties, not through other countries. They need to sit down at the table with us and ensure that this peace is truly lasting,” Johnson said.

The speaker also said that the information given in the briefing was a “first hand, authoritative and reliable account” and to ignore the information that was included in an early Pentagon intelligence assessment, which CNN first reported on earlier this week.

“It is clear, everyone can see by the videos that these, these massive ordinance penetrating bombs, do the job. And I think their key facilities have been disabled. And I think Iran is now a long time away from doing what they might have done before this very successful operation,” he continued.

Johnson noted that there was support from his colleagues on both sides of the aisle during the briefing, leading to some applause.

“I was heartened by the briefing that we just got here, and the reaction by all of our colleagues was bipartisan, and Republicans and Democrats there, there was a couple of moments of rousing applause and support for our outstanding, extraordinary military servicemen and women, the pride that we all have as Americans as the only nation on the face of the planet that is capable of this kind of decisive action,” the Louisiana Republican said.

House Mike Johnson delivers remarks at the White House on June 9, in Washington, DC.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday he is looking at ways to limit the classified information lawmakers can receive after President Donald Trump said he wants to restrict the flow of intelligence going forward.

“We’re looking into that. It’s a real problem,” Johnson told CNN.

Johnson did not rule out eliminating classified briefings for the entire House going forward.

Johnson added: “Clearly there was a leak, and you can’t have that. When you’re dealing with national security matters it’s a serious problem that you got to address.”

Some context: According to an early US defense intelligence assessment that was described by seven people briefed on it, the US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, as CNN and others reported.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said a day later, however, that “a body of credible intelligence” indicated Iran’s nuclear program was “severely damaged” by the US strikes and that “several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a meeting in Ilam, Iran, on June 12.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says that had Iran not responded to Israeli strikes this month, the situation could have escalated into a “full-scale and uncontrollable war in the region.”

Pezeshkian was speaking in a video message to a conference in Belarus.

Iranian officials have questioned the country’s membership of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which aims at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and parliament has voted to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“The Israeli assault occurred in the midst of indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s nuclear program — a deliberate attempt to sabotage the diplomatic process,” Pezeshkian said.

He said that Israel had “killed outside of the norms of war. They targeted university students and civilians. Many civilians were killed during this war. They hit residential buildings, hospitals, and places of work.”

The Iranian health ministry has said that 627 people were killed in Iran by Israeli military action.

Like other Iranian officials, Pezeshkian has cast the conflict as a victory for Iran.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid arrive in Beit Lahia, Gaza, on Wednesday.

The World Health Organization said it was able to deliver nine truckloads of essential medical supplies into Gaza on Wednesday, the first such shipment since the beginning of March. The aid included 2,000 units of blood and 1,500 units of plasma.

As agencies struggle to distribute the limited aid that is allowed into Gaza, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Wednesday that the enclave’s entire population was projected to face high levels of acute food insecurity, with nearly 500,000 facing what it called “catastrophic levels of food insecurity.”

OCHA said Thursday that “to meet humanitarian needs and help reduce looting, it is essential to get more humanitarian and essential commercial goods into Gaza, and to facilitate their safe distribution across the Strip.”

OCHA added that six out of 17 attempts to coordinate humanitarian movements inside Gaza were outright rejected by the Israeli authorities.

More on Gaza aid: The privately-run and controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said that it had been the only humanitarian organization permitted to distribute food aid in the territory on Thursday. “Our hope is this will be a temporary pause and all other aid organizations will soon be able to resume distribution in the region,” its interim Executive Director John Acree said.

An Israeli official confirmed to CNN that only GHF had distributed aid on Thursday.

The Israeli agency that handles the transfer of aid into Gaza – COGAT – said Wednesday that 150 humanitarian aid trucks carrying food, baby food and formula, as well as medical supplies and medications, had been transferred to northern and southern Gaza.

On the same day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed that Hamas was “once again seizing control of humanitarian aid entering the northern Gaza Strip” and ordered the Israeli military to present an action plan to prevent Hamas from taking aid within 48 hours.