Iran’s supreme leader has insisted the US “gained no achievements” from strikes on its nuclear facilities, in his first public address since a ceasefire with Israel was agreed.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the strikes did not “accomplish anything significant” to disrupt Iran’s nuclear programme, and said his country’s retaliation against an American air base in Qatar had dealt a “heavy blow” to the United States.

It came as Washington doubled down on its assessment that the strikes had severely undermined Iran’s nuclear ambitions. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said intelligence gathered by the US and Israel indicated the operation “significantly damaged the nuclear programme, setting it back by years”.

Previously, US President Donald Trump said the strikes against three key nuclear sites inside Iran “totally obliterated” them. He gad also responded furiously to a leaked US intelligence report which suggested that Iran’s uranium enrichment programme had only been set back by a few months.

Hegseth said the mission was a “historic success” and that the the enrichment facilities were now “inoperable”.
He said said the US was “not aware of any intelligence” which indicated the enriched uranium had been moved out of once facility, Fordo, prior to the Us attack.

Sophie Raworth presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Lyse Doucet in Tehran.

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