Live: Iran holds funeral for top military, nuclear figures killed in Israeli strikes

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest developments from Israel's war on Iran:

• Iran on Thursday denied it is set to resume nuclear talks with the United States after the end of a 12-day war with Israel.

• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday that a bill suspending cooperation with UN nuclear watchdog was now "binding" after being passed by lawmakers and approved by a top vetting body.

• French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities were "genuinely effective" but the "worst-case scenario" would be if Tehran now exits the global non-proliferation treaty.

• Israeli operatives “searched a lot” for Khamenei, but they could not find an “operational opportunity” to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the 12-day conflict with Tehran, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said during an interview with Israel’s Channel 13.

Our live blog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

- Iran currently has no plan to meet with the United States, Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi said in an interview on state TV, contradicting US President Donald Trump's statement that Washington planned to have talks with Iran next week. 

- Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the United States had "gained nothing" from its attacks on the Islamic Republic during the 12-day war with Israel, and that the US "exagerrated" the impact of its early Sunday morning strikes.

- The US military chief told reporters on Thursday that the 30,000-pound GBU-57 series MOP took 15 years to design, and was specifically made to target the Fordow facility.

- In a video statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that Israel's "victory" over Iran is an "opportunity" for further "peace agreements" in the region. He did not elaborate on which countries he meant.

- A parliamentary bill to suspend Iran's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was ratified by the Guardian Council, Iran's Young Journalist Club news outlet reported, because of the agency's refusal to condemn the US and Israeli strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.

- The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) called on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to end its "outrageous targeting of individuals on the basis of their Iranian heritage" after an increase in the number of Iranian immigrants taken away to detention centers for deportation.

The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) on Thursday called on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to end its "outrageous targeting of individuals on the basis of their Iranian heritage" after an increase in the number of Iranian immigrants taken away to detention centers for deportation.

“In the wake of U.S. military strikes on Iran on Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security has engaged in racial profiling and indiscriminate mass arrests of Iranians across the country, all under the guise of 'national security,'" NIAC said in a statement.

Fox News reported that more than 130 Iranian nationals have been detained in the past week, with 670 Iranians now held in ICE custody nationwide.

“As with all broad and racially motivated enforcement actions, everyday people suffer the most. Among those targeted is 64-year-old Donna Kashanian of Louisiana, who has lived in the United States for 47 years and is married to an American citizen," the statement continued.

“Like many Iranian Americans, those arrested often came to the U.S. in search of opportunity and freedom from an authoritarian government. Now, their mere identity now appears to be grounds for arrest in the so-called 'land of the free'".

NIAC said it is demanding ICE release "all those who are being unjustly detained".  

Iran currently has no plan to meet with the United States, Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi said on Thursday in an interview on state TV, contradicting US President Donald Trump's statement that Washington planned to have talks with Iran next week. 

The Iranian foreign minister said Tehran was assessing whether talks with the US were in its interest, following five previous rounds of negotiations that were cut short by Israel and the US attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. 

The US and Israel said the strikes were meant to curb Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons, while Iran says its nuclear programme is solely geared toward civilian use.

Aragchi said the damages to nuclear sites “were not little” and that relevant authorities were figuring out the new realities of Iran’s nuclear programme, which he said would inform Iran’s future diplomatic stance.

- Reporting by Reuters

In a video statement on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that Israel's "victory" over Iran is an "opportunity" for further "peace agreements" in the region.

He did not specify what countries he was referring to, or if that also means he would finally agree to a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority had reported earlier that US President Donald Trump is looking to strike a major deal that not only concludes Israel's war on Gaza, but also returns Israeli captives and establishes diplomatic relations between an Arab nation and Israel. 

"The victory opens an opportunity for a dramatic expansion of peace agreements - alongside the release of our hostages. There is a window here that must not be missed, not even a single day wasted," Netanyahu said in his video. 

In response, far-right Cabinet Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that while "expanding the Abraham Accords is a wonderful thing," if it's "a shiny wrapper for an existential threat in the form of dividing the land, handing over territories to the enemy, and establishing a Palestinian terror state, then no! Thank you." 

At a Thursday Pentagon briefing specifically organised to demonstrate the sophistication of the US bombs that struck Iran's nuclear facilities, the US military chief said the 30,000-pound GBU-57 series MOP took 15 years to design, and it was specifically made to target the Fordow facility deep inside a mountain.

"There's an organisation in the US called the Defense Threat Reduction Agency - Ditra. Ditra does a lot of things for our nation, but Ditra is the world's leading expert on deeply buried, underground targets," chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan 'Razin' Caine told reporters.

"In 2009 a Defense Threat Reduction Agency officer was brought into a vault at an undisclosed location and briefed on something going on in Iran for security purposes. I'm not going to share his name. He was shown some photos and some highly classified intelligence of what looked like a major construction project in the mountains of Iran. He was tasked to study this facility work with the intelligence community to understand it, and he was soon joined by an additional teammate for more than 15 years," Caine said.

"This officer and his teammate lived and breathed this single target Fordow, a critical element of Iran's covert nuclear weapons programme. He studied the geology. He watched the Iranians dig it out. He watched the construction, the weather, the discard material, construction materials, where the materials came from," he added. 

"Along the way, they realized we did not have a weapon that could adequately strike and kill this target. So they began a journey to work with industry and other tacticians to develop the GBU-57," which only the US possesses, Caine said. 

"On a day in June of 2025, more than 15 years after they started their life's work, the phone rang and the president of the United States ordered the B-2 [bomber] force... to go strike and kill this target."

The protests that followed the death in custody of Kurdish woman Mahsa Jina Amini in 2022 were arguably the most significant to rock Iran in decades.

Tens of thousands took to the streets, enraged by the apparent killing of a woman arrested by morality police over how she wore her hijab, which exposed a range of other grievances that exploded into public view.

The slogan "Woman Life Freedom", which has its roots in the pro-Kurdish groups associated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), was taken up as the mantra of the movement and quickly spread among reformists and opponents of the Islamic Republic.

When Israeli and US attacks began raining down on Iran on 13 June, some critics of the ruling establishment, particularly westerners and Iranians in the diaspora, began talking up the assault as an opportunity for regime change.

That rhetoric was echoed by Israeli officials and even Donald Trump.

But despite their animosity towards the Islamic Republic, few activists and critics in Iran see a change of governance being born from Israel or the US, or would welcome such a process.

Read more: How supporters of 'Woman Life Freedom' in Iran rejected Israel's assault

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday said US President Donald Trump "exaggerated" the impact of US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, in his first appearance since a ceasefire in the war with Israel took hold.

Khamenei also said that Trump had sought to "minimise" the impact of Iran's retaliatory strikes on a US base in Qatar, saying that he "tried... to pretend that nothing had happened, when a major event had occurred".

Here’s more from Khamenei:

• The Islamic Republic has access to important US bases in the region and any future aggression against Iran would come at a great cost.

• Iran's ability to potentially reach major US military bases is a considerable achievement, and added that such actions could be repeated if aggression is renewed.

• Iran’s enemies use excuses like Iran's missiles or the nuclear programme, but are actually seeking our surrender but it will never happen.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday that the United States had "gained nothing" from its attacks on the Islamic Republic during the 12-day war with Israel that saw nuclear sites hit.

In a statement published by state media, Khamenei said the United States "engaged in the war directly, convinced that its refusal to intervene would lead to the complete destruction of the Zionist regime".

"It has gained nothing from this war," Khamenei said of Washington, adding in his first public remarks since a Tuesday ceasefire ended the war that "the Islamic republic won, and in retaliation dealt a severe slap to the face of America".

Khamenei also said on his X account that he offers his “congratulations on the victory over the fallacious Zionist regime”, referring to Israel.

I offer my congratulations on the victory over the fallacious Zionist regime.

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) June 26, 2025

A parliamentary bill to suspend Iran's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was ratified by the Guardian Council, Iran's Young Journalist Club news outlet reported on Thursday, referring to a panel of clerics and jurists who vet legislation.

According to Iranian state TV, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the International Atomic Energy Agency "refused to even marginally condemn the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities" and had "put its international credibility up for auction".

Iranian state media said it will air on Thursday a video message from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has not delivered a public statement since a ceasefire ended Israel's 12-day war with the country earlier this week.

"The third video message by supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei addressed to the Iranian nation will be published in a few minutes," the official IRNA news agency said.

Khamenei appeared in a pre-taped video message on 13 June, the day Israel began its offensive, followed another on June 18, before the ceasefire took hold on Tuesday.

Germany on Thursday urged Iran to keep cooperating with the UN's nuclear watchdog, calling a vote by Iranian lawmakers calling for a suspension of cooperation "a totally wrong signal".

Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told a press conference that Germany "urges the Iranian government not to go down this path".

France's military took part in efforts to stop Iranian drones targeting Israel before this week's ceasefire, the country's Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said late on Wednesday.

"I can confirm that the French army intercepted less than 10 drones in the last few days during the different military operations conducted by the Islamic Republic of Iran against Israel, either by ground-to-air systems or via our Rafale fighter jets," Lecornu said during a parliamentary debate on the situation in the Middle East.

A 22-year-old student from Deir al-Assad in northern Israel will be indicted for suspicion of carrying out missions on behalf of Iran, Haaretz reported, citing police and the Shin Bet security service.

Bashar Hassan Qassem Musa was accused of placing road spikes on a central axis in Be'er Sheva, southern Israel, in an attempt to harm a public figure, according to the authorities. 

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth will hold a "major" news conference on Thursday morning, President Donald Trump said, as his administration pushes to quell doubts over the damage done by US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.

"Hegseth, together with Military Representatives, will be holding a Major News Conference tomorrow morning at 8 A.M. EST at The Pentagon, in order to fight for the Dignity of our Great American Pilots," Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday.

"The News Conference will prove both interesting and irrefutable," he said.