Robert Alvarez, left, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, and Jeffrey Patterson of Physicians for Social Responsibility in 2011 at a news conference in Washington about the accident triggered by an earthquake and tsunami at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility in Japan.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated Moscow's offer to mediate disputes over Iran’s nuclear program, during a meeting with his Iranian counterpart at the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, Reuters reported on July 6.
Lavrov met with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi to discuss the situation, condemning recent Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran, including attacks on nuclear sites under IAEA safeguards.
Moscow reaffirmed its support for Iran’s right to nuclear energy, and also offered to store Iranian uranium as part of a potential solution.
Although Iran officially denies intentions to pursue nuclear weapons, tensions with the U.S. and Israel remain high following the Iran-Israel conflict in June, which has currently settled into an uncertain ceasefire.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said on June 22 that Iran’s nuclear program must be dismantled to prevent it from threatening the Middle East or the wider world, following U.S. air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
“Iran is complicit in the crime of aggression against Ukraine. The Iranian regime is providing military assistance to Russia, including the supply of UAVs and technologies that Russia consistently uses to kill people and destroy critical infrastructure,” the statement read.
Russia and Iran have deepened ties since the start of the full-scale invasion. Notably, Iran has provided Russia with thousands of Shahed drones used in attacks against Ukrainian cities, as well as short-range ballistic missiles.
Russian nuclear giant Rosatom is negotiating the sale of a 49% stake in Turkey's Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant project, estimated at $25 billion, Bloomberg reported on July 1.
The project is a cornerstone of Russian-Turkish energy cooperation. The Akkuyu plant, located in Mersin Province, is poised to become Turkey's first nuclear power facility.
The 4.8-gigawatt project is expected to begin supplying electricity in 2026, Anton Dedusenko, chairman of the board at Rosatom's Turkish subsidiary, told Bloomberg.
"The closer we are to the first unit generating electricity, the more investors start coming," Dedusenko said on the sidelines of the Nuclear Power Plants Expo & Summit in Istanbul.
A previous sale attempt in 2018 collapsed over commercial disagreements. This time, financing is complicated by the threat of U.S. sanctions, prompting Moscow and Ankara to consider alternative payment mechanisms.
"There are many ways how to deliver money here. We can deliver the Russian rubles, the Turkish lira," Dedusenko said.
Despite its NATO membership, Turkey has maintained open diplomatic and economic ties with Russia throughout the full-scale war against Ukraine, while continuing to supply aid to Kyiv and host international mediation efforts.
Recent U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities did not eliminate the core components of Tehran’s nuclear program and likely delayed it by only a few months, according to an early assessment by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), CNN reported on June 24, citing four sources familiar with the findings.
The analysis, based on a battle damage report from U.S. Central Command, contradicts public statements by President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who claimed the operation had "obliterated" Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
"So the (DIA) assessment is that the U.S. set them back maybe a few months, tops," one source told CNN, adding that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed and that most centrifuges remain “intact.”
The White House acknowledged the assessment’s existence but strongly dismissed it. "This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community," press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program. Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.”
Trump, for his part, stood by his assessment of the mission's success. “I think it’s been completely demolished,” he said on Tuesday. “Those pilots hit their targets. Those targets were obliterated, and the pilots should be given credit.” Asked if Iran could rebuild, Trump responded: “That place is under rock. That place is demolished.”
While both Trump and Hegseth praised the strikes as decisive, others expressed caution. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine said it was “way too early” to determine whether Iran retained nuclear capabilities.
Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, former chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also avoided endorsing the president’s characterization. “I’ve been briefed on this plan in the past, and it was never meant to completely destroy the nuclear facilities, but rather cause significant damage,” McCaul told CNN. “But it was always known to be a temporary setback.”
The DIA’s assessment reportedly found that damage at the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan sites was mostly limited to aboveground infrastructure, such as power systems and uranium metal processing buildings. The underground facilities—where Iran's most sensitive nuclear work takes place—were largely unaffected, the sources said.
According to CNN, Israel had been carrying out its own strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities prior to the U.S. operation, but relied on U.S. B-2 bombers equipped with 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs to finish the job. Despite over a dozen bombs being dropped on Fordow and Natanz, the sites’ key components remain intact, the sources said.
The U.S. also reportedly used Tomahawk missiles launched from a submarine to target Isfahan, rather than deploying bunker busters. A source said this was due to doubts over whether the bombs could penetrate Isfahan’s deep underground levels, which are believed to be even more fortified than Fordow.
Two sources also told CNN that Iran likely retains undisclosed nuclear facilities that were not targeted and remain operational.
Meanwhile, classified briefings for lawmakers on the strikes were postponed. The all-Senate briefing was rescheduled for Thursday, and the House briefing’s new date remains unclear.
Iran has partially suspended production at the South Pars gas field — the world’s largest — after an Israeli airstrike triggered a fire at the site, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on June 14, according to Reuters. If confirmed, it would mark the first Israeli strike targeting Iran’s vital oil and gas infrastructure.
The South Pars field, located offshore in southern Bushehr province, is responsible for the bulk of Iran’s gas output. Tehran shares the field with Qatar, which refers to its portion as the North Field. A strike on South Pars represents a significant escalation, coming after oil prices surged 9% on June 13 following Israel’s initial wave of attacks, which had not targeted energy infrastructure, Reuters reports.
Israel launched its air offensive against Iran on June 13, killing commanders and scientists and bombing nuclear sites, in what it described as an effort to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.
The Iranian oil ministry said the fire caused by the strike has been extinguished. According to Tasnim, the fire broke out in one of four units of Phase 14 at South Pars, halting the production of 12 million cubic meters of gas.
Iran, the world’s third-largest gas producer after the United States and Russia, produces around 275 billion cubic meters of gas per year, about 6.5% of global output.
Due to international sanctions, the country consumes most of this domestically. Qatar, which operates the majority of the shared field with support from global firms such as Exxon and Shell, produces 77 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas annually, supplying both European and Asian markets.
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