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United Nations officials on Friday said a US- and Israeli-backed distribution system in Gaza was leading to mass killings of people seeking humanitarian aid, drawing accusations from Israel that the UN was “aligning itself with Hamas”.Eyewitnesses and local officials have reported repeated killings of Palestinians seeking aid at distribution centres over recent weeks in the war-stricken territory, where Israeli forces are battling Hamas militants.The Israeli military has denied targeting people seeking aid and the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has denied any deadly incidents were linked to its sites.But following weeks of reports, UN officials and other aid providers on Friday denounced what they said was a wave of killings of hungry people seeking aid.”The new aid distribution system has become a killing field,” with people “shot at while trying to access food for themselves and their families,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian affairs (UNWRA).”This abomination must end through a return to humanitarian deliveries from the UN including @UNRWA,” he wrote on X.The health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory says that since late May, more than 500 people have been killed near aid centres while seeking scarce supplies.The country’s civil defence agency has also repeatedly reported people being killed while seeking aid.”People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.”The search for food must never be a death sentence.”Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) branded the GHF relief effort “slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid”.- Israel denies targeting civilians -That drew an angry response from Israel, which said GHF had provided 46 million meals in Gaza.”The UN is doing everything it can to oppose this effort. In doing so, the UN is aligning itself with Hamas, which is also trying to sabotage the GHF’s humanitarian operations,” the foreign ministry said.Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a newspaper report that the country’s military commanders ordered soldiers to fire at Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid in Gaza.Left-leaning daily Haaretz had earlier quoted unnamed soldiers as saying commanders ordered troops to shoot at crowds near aid distribution centres to disperse them even when they posed no threat.Haaretz said the military advocate general, the army’s top legal authority, had instructed the military to investigate “suspected war crimes” at aid sites.The Israeli military declined to comment to AFP on the claim.Netanyahu said in a joint statement with Defence Minister Israel Katz that their country “absolutely rejects the contemptible blood libels” and “malicious falsehoods” in the Haaretz article.The military said in a separate statement it “did not instruct the forces to deliberately shoot at civilians, including those approaching the distribution centres”.It added that Israeli military “directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians.”Israel blocked deliveries of food and other crucial supplies into Gaza from March for more than two months.It began allowing supplies to trickle in at the end of May, with GHF centres secured by armed US contractors and Israeli troops on the perimeter.Guterres said that from the UN, just a “handful” of medical deliveries had crossed into Gaza this week.- Civil defence says 80 killed -Gaza’s civil defence agency told AFP 80 Palestinians had been killed on Friday by Israeli strikes or fire across the Palestinian territory, including 10 who were waiting for aid.The Israeli military told AFP it was looking into the incidents, and denied its troops fired in one of the locations in central Gaza where rescuers said one aid seeker was killed.Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP six people were killed in southern Gaza near one of the distribution sites operated by GHF, and one more in a separate incident in the centre of the territory, where the army denied shooting “at all”.Another three people were killed by a strike while waiting for aid southwest of Gaza City, Bassal said.Elsewhere, eight people were killed “after an Israeli air strike hit Osama Bin Zaid School, which was housing displaced persons” in northern Gaza.MSF said that in the week of June 8, shortly after GHF opened a distribution site in central Gaza’s Netzarim corridor, the MSF field hospital in nearby Deir el-Balah saw a 190-percent increase in bullet wound cases compared to the previous week.- Militants attack Israeli forces -Meanwhile, Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said they shelled an Israeli vehicle east of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza on Friday.The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas-ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said they attacked Israeli soldiers in at least two other locations near Khan Yunis in coordination with the Al-Qassam Brigades.Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 56,331 people, also mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.

US President Donald Trump said Friday he had saved Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from assassination and lashed out at the supreme leader for ingratitude, declaring he would order more bombing if the country tried to pursue nuclear weapons.In an extraordinary outburst on his Truth Social platform, Trump blasted Tehran for claiming to have won its war with Israel and said he was halting work on possible sanctions relief.The tirade came as Iran prepared to hold a state funeral for 60 nuclear scientists and military commanders who were killed in the 12-day bombing blitz Israel launched on June 13.Iran says the scientists were among a total of at least 627 civilians killed. Trump said the United States would bomb Iran again “without question” if intelligence indicated it was able to enrich uranium to military grade.Iran has consistently denied any ambition to develop a nuclear arsenal.Trump accused the Iranian leader of ingratitude after Khamenei said in a defiant message that reports of damage to nuclear facilities were exaggerated and that Tehran had dealt Washington a “slap” in the face.”I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life,” Trump posted.”I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, ‘THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!'” Trump also said that he had been working in recent days on the possible removal of sanctions against Iran, one of Tehran’s main demands.”But no, instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more,” Trump added, exhorting Iran to return to the negotiating table.Iran has denied it is set to resume nuclear talks with the United States, after Trump said that negotiations were set to begin again next week.Its government on Friday rejected a request by Rafael Grossi, the director of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, to visit facilities bombed by Israel and the United States, saying it suggested “malign intent.”Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi hit out at Grossi personally in a post on X for not speaking out against the air strikes, accusing him of an “astounding betrayal of his duties.”- ‘Beat to hell’ -Asked earlier in a White House press conference whether he would consider fresh air strikes if last week’s sorties were not successful in ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Trump said: “Sure. Without question. Absolutely.”Trump added that Khamenei and Iran “got beat to hell”.The war of words came with a fragile ceasefire holding in the conflict between Israel and Iran.Speculation had swirled about the fate of Khamenei before his first appearance since the ceasefire — a televised speech on Thursday.Khamenei hailed what he described as Iran’s “victory” over Israel, vowing never to yield to US pressure.”The American president exaggerated events in unusual ways, and it turned out that he needed this exaggeration,” the Iranian leader said.It was unclear if Khamenei would attend Saturday’s state funeral in Tehran.The commemorations begin at 8:00 am (0430 GMT) at Enghelab Square in central Tehran, to be followed by a funeral procession to Azadi Square, about 11 kilometres (seven miles) across the sprawling metropolis.In a televised interview on Friday, Mohsen Mahmoudi, head of Tehran’s Islamic Development Coordination Council, had vowed it would be a “historic day for Islamic Iran and the revolution”.On the first day of the war on June 13, Israel killed Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami.He will be laid to rest after Saturday’s ceremony, which will also honour at least 30 other top commanders.Armed forces chief of staff General Mohammad Bagheri will be buried with his wife and journalist daughter who were killed alongside him in an Israeli strike.Of the 60 people who are to be laid to rest after Saturday’s ceremony, four are women and four are children.Tehran is still coming to terms with the damage wrought by Israel’s bombing campaign, the capital’s first taste of war since the devastating 1980-88 conflict with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.Israel bombed multiple residential neighbourhoods as it killed the senior figures being laid to rest on Saturday, many of them in their own homes.Retaliatory drone and missile fire by Iran killed 28 people in Israel, according to official figures.

President Donald Trump has escalated his longstanding assault on the mainstream media, denigrating individual reporters and threatening legal action against major outlets over their coverage this week of US military strikes on Iran.Trump has staked significant political capital on the success of last weekend’s strikes, which he ordered despite criticism within his own support base for breaking his campaign promises to avoid foreign military interventions.The president has blasted press coverage of a preliminary classified report from his own administration that suggested that Trump’s claim that Iran’s nuclear facilities were “obliterated” was overstated.The unusually scathing attack on reporters underscores what many observers view as Trump’s effort to put the media — already battling record low public trust — on the defensive and stifle scrutiny of the bombing raid.”Having made the decision to join the fight against Iran, being able to claim that the intervention was brief and successful has obvious political upside for Trump in repairing rifts within his coalition,” Joshua Tucker, co-director of the New York University Center for Social Media and Politics, told AFP.”The discussion by the media of the preliminary intelligence report therefore complicated the president’s preferred narrative about the US attack.”The preliminary intelligence assessment, first reported by CNN and The New York Times, then picked up by other mainstream media, suggested that the strikes may not have destroyed the core parts of the nuclear sites and had set back Iran’s nuclear program by only a few months.Trump said CNN should throw the reporter on the story out “like a dog.” He said CNN and New York Times reporters were “bad and sick people” attempting to demean American pilots involved in the strikes.At a televised news conference on Thursday, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth reiterated the president’s complaints and pushed back on the findings of the report — issued by the US Defense Intelligence Agency –- but did not deny its existence.- ‘Increasingly ugly’ -Both news outlets have stood behind their journalists and defended their reporting.”President Trump and his administration are going after shooting the messengers in an increasingly ugly way,” said CNN’s top political anchor Jake Tapper.”They’re calling journalists ‘fake news’ for true stories,” he added.Trump has also threatened to sue The New York Times and CNN over their coverage of the intelligence report.In a letter, the president’s personal lawyer said the New York Times had damaged Trump’s reputation and demanded that it “retract and apologize” for its report, calling it “false,” “defamatory” and “unpatriotic,” according to the newspaper.The newspaper said it had rejected those demands.”Trump is killing the messenger,” Todd Belt, director of the political management program at George Washington University, told AFP.”He’s taking it out on the press because he knows that the press are unpopular,” particularly among his core Make America Great Again (MAGA) base, he said.”Additionally, he and others in the administration are using the attack line of patriotism to bolster their side against the press.”- ‘Peace through strength’ -The anti-media rhetoric escalates Trump’s longstanding battle with the press.Since the beginning of his second term, his administration has sought to target the finances of media organizations — already struggling in an increasingly tough commercial climate — by cutting government agencies’ news subscriptions.He has also targeted news outlets with multi-million dollar lawsuits.Trump’s latest attacks come amid a public relations campaign to portray himself as a peacemaker in the Middle East, while retaining the support of his core MAGA base.On Friday, Trump doubled down on his stance, stating that Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “got beat to hell” in the hostilities involving the United States and Israel, while exhorting Tehran to return to the negotiating table.”If his ‘peace through strength’ single attack didn’t work and the conflict gets drawn out, this undermines his claim as a peacemaker,” said Belt.”If the public believes the single strike didn’t work, then he will either have to attack again or negotiate from a position that recognizes that Iran still maintains fissile material, which may not work.”

US President Donald Trump said Friday he had saved Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khameni from assassination and lashed out at the supreme leader for ingratitude, declaring he would order more bombing if the country tried to pursue nuclear weapons.In an extraordinary outburst on his Truth Social platform, Trump blasted Tehran for claiming to have won its war with Israel and said he was halting work on possible sanctions relief.Trump said that the United States would bomb Iran again “without question” if the country was still able to enrich nuclear-weapons grade uranium following US strikes.The US president accused the Iranian leader of ingratitude after Khamenei said in a defiant message that reports of damage to its nuclear sites from US bombing were exaggerated, and said Iran had beaten Israel and dealt Washington a “slap.”Trump posted: “I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life.””I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, “THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!'” Trump said that he had been working in recent days on the possible removal of sanctions against Iran, one of Tehran’s long-term demands.”But no, instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more,” Trump added, exhorting Iran to return to the negotiating table.Iran’s foreign minister on Wednesday denied it is set to resume nuclear talks with the United States, after Trump said at a NATO summit in The Hague that negotiations were set to begin again next week.- ‘Beat to hell’ -Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff had expressed hope “for a comprehensive peace agreement.”Asked earlier in a White House press conference whether he would consider fresh air strikes if last week’s sorties were not successful in ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Trump said: “Sure. Without question. Absolutely.”Trump added that Khamenei and Iran “got beat to hell” in the hostilities involving the United States and Israel and that “it was a great time to end it.”He had said during the press conference that he would be “putting out a little statement” on Khamenei’s comments, which appeared to be the Truth Social post.In the post, he accused Khamenei of “blatantly and foolishly” saying Iran won the 12-day war with Israel, adding: “As a man of great faith, he is not supposed to lie.”The war of words come as a fragile ceasefire holds in the conflict between Israel and Iran.Speculation had however swirled about the fate of Khamenei.In a televised speech on Thursday — his first appearance since the ceasefire — Khamenei hailed what he described as Iran’s “victory” over Israel, vowed never to yield to US pressure and insisted Washington had been dealt a humiliating “slap”.”The American president exaggerated events in unusual ways, and it turned out that he needed this exaggeration,” Khamenei said, rejecting Trump’s claims Iran’s nuclear program had been set back by decades.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Friday branded a controversial Israel- and US-backed food distribution effort in Gaza as “slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid”, calling for it to be ended.The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which began operating last month and has largely replaced established humanitarian organisations, “is degrading Palestinians by design, forcing them to choose between starvation or risking their lives for minimal supplies”, MSF said in a statement.Starting in March, Israel blocked deliveries of food and other crucial supplies into Gaza for more than two months, leading to warnings of famine across a territory widely flattened by Israeli bombing since the massive October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas.Israel began allowing food supplies to trickle in at the end of May, using GHF — backed by armed US contractors, with Israeli troops on the perimeter — to run operations.The UN and major aid groups have refused to work with it, saying it serves Israeli military goals and violates basic humanitarian principles.Washington meanwhile announced this week that it would provide $30 million in direct funding to the GHF, even as it has slashed practically all of its traditional foreign aid support.- Over 500 killed -The organisation has been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people desperate to get food.World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Friday that in the past two weeks 500 people have been killed “at non-UN militarised food-distribution sites”.MSF said that “with over 500 people killed and nearly 4,000 wounded while seeking food, this scheme is slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid and must be immediately dismantled”.GHF has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points.And Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday rejected an Israeli media report that military commanders have ordered soldiers to fire at Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid in Gaza.But MSF insisted its teams in Gaza were seeing patients daily “who have been killed or wounded trying to get food” at one of GHF’s four distribution sites, pointing to “a stark increase in the number of patients with gunshot wounds”.Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, MSF’s emergency coordinator in Gaza, said the four sites were all under the full control of Israeli forces, surrounded by watch points and barbed wire.”If people arrive early and approach the checkpoints, they get shot. If they arrive on time but there is an overflow and they jump over the mounds and the wires, they get shot,” he said in the statement.”If they arrive late, they shouldn’t be there because it is an ‘evacuated zone’ — they get shot.”- ‘Hunger stalks everyone’ -MSF also warned that the way GHF distributes food aid supplies “forces thousands of Palestinians, who have been starved by an over 100 day-long Israeli siege, to walk long distances to reach the four distribution sites and fight for scraps of food supplies”. “These sites hinder women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities from accessing aid, and people are killed and wounded in the chaotic process,” it said.MSF urged “the Israeli authorities and their allies to lift the siege on food, fuel, medical and humanitarian supplies and to revert to the pre-existing principled humanitarian system coordinated by the UN”.The United Nations this week condemned what it said appeared to be Israel’s “weaponisation of food” in Gaza — a war crime.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said that Israeli forces killed at least 62 people on Friday, including 10 who were waiting for aid in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.The reported killing of people seeking aid marks the latest in a string of deadly incidents near aid sites in Gaza, where a US- and Israeli-backed foundation has largely replaced established humanitarian organisations.Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 62 Palestinians had been killed Friday by Israeli strikes or fire across the Palestinian territory.When asked by AFP for comment, the Israeli military said it was looking into the incidents, and denied its troops fired in one of the locations in central Gaza where rescuers said one aid seeker was killed. Bassal told AFP that six people were killed in southern Gaza near one of the distribution sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), and one more in a separate incident in the centre of the territory, where the army denied shooting “at all”.Another three people were killed by a strike while waiting for aid southwest of Gaza City, Bassal said.The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory says that since late May, more than 500 people have been killed near aid centres while seeking scarce supplies. GHF has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points.- ‘Slaughter’ -Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Friday slammed the GHF relief effort, calling it “slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid”.It noted that in the week of June 8, shortly after GHF opened a distribution site in central Gaza’s Netzarim corridor, the MSF field hospital in nearby Deir el-Balah saw a 190 percent increase in bullet wound cases compared to the previous week.Aitor Zabalgogeaskoa, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza, said in a statement that under the way in which the distribution centres currently operate: “If people arrive early and approach the checkpoints, they get shot.””If they arrive on time, but there is an overflow and they jump over the mounds and the wires, they get shot”.”If they arrive late, they shouldn’t be there because it is an ‘evacuated zone’, they get shot,” he added.Meanwhile, Bassal said that ten people were killed in five separate Israeli strikes near the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, east of which he said “continuous Israeli artillery shelling” was reported Friday.Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said they shelled an Israeli vehicle east of Khan Yunis Friday.The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas-ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said they had attacked a group of Israeli soldiers north of Khan Yunis in coordination with the Al-Qassam Brigades.Bassal added that thirty people were killed in six separate strikes in northern Gaza on Friday, including a fisherman who was targeted “by Israeli warships”.He specified that eight of them were killed “after an Israeli air strike hit Osama Bin Zaid School, which was housing displaced persons” in northern Gaza.In central Gaza’s al-Bureij refugee camp, 12 people were killed in two separate Israeli strikes, Bassal said.Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and witnesses.Israel’s military said it was continuing its operations in Gaza on Friday, after army chief Eyal Zamir announced earlier in the week that the focus would again shift to the territory after a 12-day war with Iran.Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 56,331 people, also mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.

Desperate relatives of two French detainees in Iran demanded “proof of life” Friday after Israel struck their Tehran prison and a lawyer denounced their “forced disappearance”.French national Cecile Kohler, 40, and her 72-year-old partner Jacques Paris have been held in Iran since May 2022 on espionage charges their families reject.Their fate has been unknown since Israel targeted Tehran’s Evin prison in an air strike on Monday, before a US-proposed ceasefire between the Middle East foes came into force.Iran’s prison authority transferred inmates out of the prison after it was hit, the judiciary said on Tuesday, but it is not clear how many inmates were moved or who they were.”We don’t know if they are still alive, we don’t know where they are,” Noemie Kohler said at a press conference in Paris.”We await proof of life immediately,” she added.Anne-Laure Paris said she also had no idea where her father was.”In view of the gravity of the situation, I am addressing you today, for the first time, because I’m scared for my father’s life,” she said at a press conference.Chirinne Ardakani, the lawyer of the relatives, said: “Cecile and Jacques, state hostages arbitrarily detained in a cruel and inhuman manner in Iran, are missing.””In law, this is a forced disappearance,” she added.They “could have been transferred to another prison”, be buried “under the rubble” or they could have been moved “into secret detention locations”, she said.A French junior minister said on Wednesday that France had been assured that the French couple had not been wounded during the Israeli strike.But Noemie Kohler said that this information “from the Iranian authorities” was “far from a guarantee”.Rights groups say that Evin has been home to dozens of “political prisoners” innocent of any crime, including foreigners, and women who are kept in a separate wing. The prison is believed to have the capacity for hundreds of inmates.The Israeli strike destroyed part of the administrative building of the large, heavily fortified prison complex in the north of Tehran.

One week after the US strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites, there is no consensus as to how effective they were.With those strikes, Washington joined Israel’s bombardments of Iran’s nuclear programme in the 12-day conflict launched on June 13.Israel said its campaign was aimed at ending Iran’s nuclear programme, which Tehran insists is for civilian purposes but which Washington and other powers insist is aimed at acquiring atomic weapons.Here is an overview of the different positions on the strikes.- US hails ‘historic success’ -The Trump administration on Thursday insisted the operation had been a total success, berating journalists for having reported on an intelligence assessment that took a more conservative line.President Donald Trump “created the conditions to end the war, decimating — choose your word — obliterating, destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities”, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told journalists at the Pentagon.Trump himself has called the strikes a “spectacular military success”, insisting they “obliterated” the nuclear sites, setting Iran’s programme back by “decades”.Earlier this week however, US media reported on a leaked preliminary US intelligence assessment that said the strikes had only set back Iran’s nuclear programme by months — coverage sharply criticized by Hegseth and others.The document was “leaked because someone had an agenda to try to muddy the waters and make it look like this historic strike wasn’t successful”, Hegseth said.He also highlighted a statement by CIA chief John Ratcliffe, who pointed to a “historically reliable and accurate” source of information indicating that “several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years”.- Israel claims ‘significant hit’ -The Israeli military has said it had delivered a “significant hit” to Iran’s nuclear programme.While it said its attacks had delayed the programme “by several years” it also said it was “still early to assess the results of the operation”.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday hailed a “historic victory” in the 12-day conflict and vowed to thwart “any attempt” by Iran to rebuild its nuclear programme.- ‘Nothing significant’: Khamenei -Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has hailed what he described as Iran’s “victory” over Israel.”The American president exaggerated events in unusual ways,” Khamenei said, insisting the strikes had done “nothing significant” to Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi however called the damage “serious” and said a detailed assessment was under way.Doubts remain about whether Iran quietly removed more than 400 kilogrammes (880 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60 percent from its most sensitive sites before the strikes — to hide it elsewhere in the country.The stockpile could in theory produce more than nine atomic bombs — if the enrichment level were raised to 90 percent.A Khamenei adviser, Ali Shamkhani, has said that the country still had its stockpile.”Even if nuclear sites are destroyed, game isn’t over, enriched materials, indigenous knowledge, political will remain,” he said in a post on X.UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has called for its inspectors to be able to return to Iran’s nuclear sites in a bid to account for the stockpiles.But on Thursday, the Iranian body tasked with vetting legislation approved a bill passed by lawmakers suspending cooperation with the IAEA. That will go to Iran’s president for final ratification.- ‘Enormous damage’ IAEA -All sides, even some voices in Tehran, agree the strikes on Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan caused major damage.”I believe annihilated is too strong. But it (Iran’s nuclear programme) has suffered enormous damage,” IAEA head Rafael Grossi told French radio RFI.”It is true that, with its reduced capacities, it will be much more difficult for Iran to continue the pace it had.”Thousands of centrifuges — the machines used to enrich uranium — were no longer operational, he said, “given the explosive payload utilised and the extreme vibration-sensitive nature” of the equipment.Experts say that some centrifuges were stored in unknown locations in recent years, as Iran’s cooperation with the UN agency deteriorated.Other sites of the nuclear programme remain intact.