U.S. and Iran trade threats as tension soars 7 months after U.S. strikes

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Tehran, Iran — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian promised connected Tuesday a harsh effect to immoderate attack, appearing to respond to a informing the erstwhile time by President Trump implicit Iran's purported attempts to rebuild its atomic program.

"Answer of Islamic Republic of Iran to immoderate cruel aggression volition beryllium harsh and discouraging," Pezeshkian said successful a societal media post.

Pezeshkian did not elaborate, but his connection came a time aft Mr. Trump suggested the U.S. could transportation retired caller subject strikes if Iran attempts to reconstitute its atomic program.

Mr. Trump made the remark during wide-ranging talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu astatine the U.S. leader's Mar-a-Lago property successful Florida.

"Now I perceive that Iran is trying to physique up again," Mr. Trump said during a quality league with Netanyahu aft their meeting. "And if they are, we're going to person to sound them down. We'll sound them down. We'll sound the hellhole retired of them. But hopefully that's not happening."

President Trump Meets With Israeli PM Netanyahu At His Palm Beach Estate

The 2 leaders discussed the anticipation of renewed subject enactment against Tehran months aft a 12-day aerial warfare successful June that killed astir 1,100 Iranians, including elder subject commanders and scientists. Iran's retaliatory rocket barrage killed 28 radical successful Israel.

Mr. Trump repeatedly declared "total obliteration" of Iran's atomic programme aft 3 sites were bombed successful a concealed onslaught by the U.S. successful June, but questions were raised about the grade of the harm inflicted. An initial classified assessment determined that the strikes had acceptable backmost Tehran's atomic programme by a substance of months, portion Mr. Trump said it was acceptable backmost "basically decades."

Some Democratic lawmakers, aft a classified briefing connected the strikes, argued that Mr. Trump had misled the American radical astir the level of occurrence achieved.

Mr. Trump suggested Monday that helium could bid different U.S. onslaught against Iran if helium believes it's needed.

"If it's confirmed, they cognize the consequences, and the consequences volition beryllium precise powerful, possibly much almighty than the past time," Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Trump said helium had heard Iran was rebuilding its capabilities aft his closed-door gathering connected Monday with Netanyahu, who has pressed successive U.S. administrations for decades to instrumentality a harder enactment against Iran.

"Netanyahu remains focused connected reducing threats from Iran to Israel, which helium has been for the astir 30 years he's been successful office," CBS News nationalist information contributor Samantha Vinograd, a erstwhile apical Homeland Security authoritative successful the Obama administration, said Tuesday.

But Vinograd added that "the United States and Israel whitethorn person antithetic quality assessments of what Iran's intentions are, what their capabilities are."

She said the U.S. strikes implicit the summertime — known arsenic Operation Midnight Hammer — "did inflict harm to Iran's atomic facilities, nevertheless Iran does clasp highly enriched uranium which could beryllium utilized to breakout to a bomb."

A graphic released by the Pentagon shows the formation way and timeline of Operation Midnight Hammer, the U.S. cognition to onslaught atomic sites successful Iran connected Saturday, June 21, 2025.

Vinograd said, however, the astir contiguous menace posed by Iran — not lone to Israel but to U.S. forces successful the portion — whitethorn good beryllium its monolithic stockpile of accepted ballistic missiles, not its potential to effort to physique a viable atomic weapon.

"Iran has had much ballistic missiles than immoderate different federation successful the region, different than Israel, and it's truly their leverage erstwhile it comes to wreaking havoc crossed the region, some against targets successful Israel, American troops overseas, via proxies and more."

"It does look that determination is immoderate benignant of quality spread betwixt what the U.S. thinks Iran is doing and susceptible of, and what Israeli quality is saying connected those fronts."

Pezeshkian said Saturday that hostility betwixt the 2 sides had already risen again, claiming: "We are successful a full-scale warfare with the U.S., Israel and Europe; they don't privation our state to stay stable."

Iran has insisted it is nary longer enriching uranium astatine immoderate tract successful the country, trying to awesome to the West that it remains unfastened to imaginable negotiations implicit its atomic program.

U.S. quality agencies and the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency assessed Iran past had an organized atomic weapons programme successful 2003, though Tehran had continued enriching uranium up to 60%, which is simply a abbreviated method measurement distant from weapons-grade levels of 90%.