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The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran seemed to be held on Wednesday after a difficult departure, giving Rise to prudent hope That this could lead to a long -term peace agreement even if Tehran insists that he will not abandon his nuclear program.
The ceasefire settled on Tuesday on Tuesday, the 12th day of war between Israel and Iran, each party initially accusing the other of raping it until the missiles, drones and bombs finally stopped.
On Wednesday, American president Donald Trump, who helped negotiate the ceasefire, told journalists at a NATO summit in the Netherlands that it was “very well”.
“They are not going to have a bomb and they will not enrich,” said Trump about Iran.
Iran, however, insisted that it will not give up its nuclear program and, during a vote, highlighting the difficult path to come, the Iranian Parliament agreed to resume a proposal which would effectively stop the country’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Watchdog of the UN based in Vienna which followed the Iranian nuclear program for years.
Before the vote, the president of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf criticized the IAEA for having “refused to claim even to condemn the attack on Iranian nuclear installations” on Sunday by the United States.
“For this reason, Iran’s atomic energy organization suspend cooperation with the IAEA until the security of nuclear facilities is ensured, and the Iranian peaceful nuclear program is going forward at a faster rate,” Qalibaf told legislators.
In Vienna, the director general of the IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said that he had already written in Iran to discuss inspections for the recovery of their nuclear installations.
Among other things, Iran claims to have moved its highly enriched uranium before the American strikes and Grosi said that its inspectors had to reassess the country’s stocks.
“We have to come back,” he said. “We have to get involved.”
Questions about the effectiveness of the United States strikes
The American strikes struck three Iranian nuclear sites, which, according to Trump, had “completely and completely erased” the country’s nuclear program.
From Tehran, the spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei, confirmed that the strikes on American B-2 bombers using bunker bombs had caused significant damage on Sunday.
“Our nuclear installations were seriously damaged, for sure,” he told Al Jazeera on Wednesday, while refusing to go into details.
Trump’s special envoy in the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said on Fox News on Tuesday that Israel and the United States had now achieved their objective of “total destruction of enrichment” in Iran, and the prerequisite of Iran – that Israel ended his campaign – had also been carried out.
“The proof is in pudding,” he said. “No one gets out of each other. It’s over.”
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At the NATO summit, when an American intelligence report was questioned which found that the Iran’s nuclear program was only set up a few months, Trump made fun and said that he would take at least “years” to rebuild.
Israeli military spokesperson Brig. General Effie Defrin said on Wednesday that his country’s assessment was also that Iranian nuclear installations had been “considerably damaged” and that his nuclear program “does it by years”.
Grossi said he could not speculate on the severity of the damage, but that Iran’s nuclear capacities were well known.
“Technical knowledge is there and industrial capacity is there,” he said. “Let no one can deny, so we have to work with them.”
Hope a long -term agreement
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said that the ceasefire agreement with Iran was “silent for calm”, without any other understanding of Iran’s nuclear program.
In Fox News’ interview, Witkoff said Trump was now looking to land “a complete peace agreement that goes beyond the ceasefire”.
“We are already talking about, not only directly, but also through interlocutors,” said Witkoff, adding that the conversations were promising and “we hope we can have a long -term peace agreement”.
China, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a close Iranian partner, also weighed on Wednesday, saying that it hoped that a “sustainable and efficient ceasefire can be made so as to promote” peace and stability in the region.
China is a major Iranian oil buyer and has long supported his politically government, blaming Israel for starting the last conflict and destabilizing the region.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Guo Jiakun, told journalists in Beijing that following the conflict, China was willing to “inject positive factors to protect peace and stability in the Middle East”.
Grossi said that Iran and the international community should seize the opportunity of the ceasefire for a long-term diplomatic solution.
“Among the … bad things that military conflicts bring, there is also an possibility, an opening,” he said. “We should not miss this opportunity.”
Iran performs three other prisoners on spy allegations
During the war with Israel, Iran executed several prisoners accused of espionage for Israel, aroused the fears of activists that he could make a wave of executions after the end of the conflict.
He hanged three other prisoners for espionage on Wednesday, bearing the total number of executions for espionage up to six since June 16.
The hangings took place in Urmia prison in western Azerbaijan, the most northwest province of Iran. The IRNA led by the State quoted Iran’s judiciary for the news, saying that the men had been accused of having brought “assassination material” to the country.
Iran identified the three as Azad Shojaei, Edris Aali and the Iraqi National Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul. Amnesty International had previously raised concerns that men could be executed.
During the 12 -day war, at least 28 people were killed in Israel and more than 1,000 injured, according to officials.
Tehran left the number of deaths in Iran on Tuesday at 606, with 5,332 people injured. The group of human rights activists based in Washington published figures on Wednesday suggesting that Israeli strikes on Iran had killed at least 1,054 people and wounded 4,476.
The group, which provided detailed figures from victims of several troubles in Iran, said that 417 of the people killed were civilians and 318 were security force staff.
During the war, Israeli air strikes also targeted the main military leaders of Iran and other sites associated with its power theocracy.
With the ceasefire in place, the Iranians try to return to their normal life.
The state media described intense traffic around the Caspian Sea and other rural areas outside the capital, Tehran, while people were starting to return to the city.
–The writers of the Associated Press Josef Federman and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
