Iran-Israel conflict: Trump compares 'devastating' Iran strike to Hiroshima

An Israeli strike on northern Iran before the start of a ceasefire on Tuesday killed 16 people, according to a revised toll from an official cited by the ISNA news agency.

The strike hit a residential area of Astaneh-ye-Ashrafiyeh, in Gilan province on the Caspian Sea coast. The earlier toll was nine dead.

Wall Street stocks jumped Tuesday as an Iran-Israel ceasefire appeared to hold through its first day and oil prices continued their retreat.

Major indices spent the entire day in positive territory with both Iran and Israel refraining from new attacks after a barrage of last-minute strikes.

With the "deescalation, the market seems to be doing better," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist of B. Riley Wealth, who also described Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's testimony before Congress as constructive for equities.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 1.2 percent at 43,089.02.

The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 1.1 percent to 6,092.18, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.4 percent to 19,912.53.

Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed the Iran-Israel ceasefire and urged "close dialogue" to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict, as he held talks with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of a NATO summit late Tuesday.

The Turkish president "expressed his satisfaction with the ceasefire achieved between Israel and Iran through President Trump's efforts, hoping it would be permanent," his office said.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Trump announced that Iran and Israel had agreed to a staggered ceasefire that would bring about an "official end" to their 11 day conflict.

A classified preliminary US intelligence report has concluded that American strikes on Iran set back Tehran's nuclear program by just a few months - rather than destroying it as claimed by President Donald Trump.

US media on Tuesday cited people familiar with the Defense Intelligence Agency findings as saying the weekend strikes did not fully eliminate Iran's centrifuges or stockpile of enriched uranium.

The strikes sealed off entrances to some facilities without destroying underground buildings, according to the report.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a "historic victory" against Iran despite a US intelligence report concluding that American strikes set back Tehran's nuclear program by just a few months.

"We have thwarted Iran's nuclear project," he said. "And if anyone in Iran tries to rebuild it, we will act with the same determination, with the same intensity, to foil any attempt."

Israel had said its bombing campaign, which began on June 13, was aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.

Israel's military said that its strikes had set back Iran's nuclear programme "by years".

President Donald Trump on Tuesday rebuffed US media reports of intel finding the US strikes on Iran only set back Tehran's nuclear program by a few months.

"THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED!" the president posted on Truth Social.

Most equities extended a global rally Wednesday after Iran and Israel agreed to a ceasefire that ended more than a week of hostilities, while the dollar struggled to recover from a sharp drop stoked by bets on a US interest rate cut.

However, wariness over the agreement by the Middle East foes helped oil prices climb, though they are still well down from their highs on Monday.

Stocks surged and oil tanked on the news, and the optimism rolled into Wednesday, with Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney and Singapore leading the gains across Asia. Tokyo edged down.

Oil prices later rose, with both main contracts up more than one percent.

However, they are still down around 16 percent from the highs hit Monday in the first reaction to the US bombing of Iran and before the ceasefire announcement.

Iran said Wednesday that it executed three men accused of spying for Israel, the day after a truce between the two countries came into effect.

"Idris Ali, Azad Shojai and Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul, who attempted to import equipment into the country to carry out assassinations, were arrested and tried for... cooperation favouring the Zionist regime," the judiciary said, referring to Israel.

"The sentence was carried out this morning... and they were hanged."

Iran will hold on Saturday state funerals for senior military commanders and top scientists killed during the country's 12-day conflict with Israel, official media said.

"The national funeral ceremony for... commanders and scientists martyred in the Zionist regime's aggression will be held on Saturday from 8:00 am (0430 GMT)" in Tehran, official news agency IRNA reported on Wednesday, a day after the two sides had agreed a ceasefire.

IRNA said that Hossein Salami, the Revolutionary Guards chief killed by Israel on the conflict's first day on June 13, will be laid to rest on Thursday.

Iranian lawmakers voted Wednesday in favour of suspending cooperation with the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, state TV said, after a 12-day war that saw Israeli and US strikes on nuclear facilities.

"The International Atomic Energy Agency, which refused to even marginally condemn the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, put its international credibility up for auction," Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said according to state TV, announcing that "the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran will suspend its cooperation with the IAEA until the security of the nuclear facilities is guaranteed."

Israel's military said on Tuesday it was "still early" to assess the damage caused to Iran's nuclear sites, a day after a ceasefire ended 12 days of war between the longtime foes.

"It is still early to assess the results of the operation," Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said in a televised press conference, after US intelligence services reportedly concluded that American strikes set back the Iranian nuclear programme by several months.

"I believe we have delivered a significant hit to the nuclear programme, and I can also say that we have delayed it by several years," said Defrin.

President Donald Trump insisted on Wednesday that US strikes resulted in the "total obliteration" of Iran's nuclear capabilities, setting the country's atomic programme back by "decades".

"They're not going to be building bombs for a long time," said Trump, who added that the ceasefire between Israel and Iran after the strikes was going "very well".

Israel's defence minister on Wednesday designated Iran's central bank a "terror organisation", saying the move was aimed at halting financing for Iran-backed militant groups the day after a ceasefire between the two foes took hold.

Minister Israel Katz "signed a special order designating Iran's central bank, two additional Iranian banks (and) an Iranian armed forces-affiliated company... as terror organisations," a statement from his office said.

"Part of Israel's broader campaign against Iran", the move aims "to target the heart of the Iranian regime's terror financing system, which funds, arms and directs terror throughout the Middle East", it added.

France conveyed to Iran the terms of a US-proposed ceasefire with Israel at the request of Washington in the hours leading up to the truce, a French diplomatic source said Wednesday.

On Monday night, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot to "inform him of the US wish for a ceasefire provided there was no Iranian retaliation," the source said.

"Rubio asked Jean-Noel Barrot to transmit this information to Abbas Araghchi," their Iranian counterpart, it said.

"After the call, the (French) minister spoke to his Iranian counterpart to... transmit the terms and details of the discussions (between) Americans and Israelis," the source added.

Araghchi then indicated his "availability to continue negotiations on the Iranian nuclear programme" including with France, Britain and Germany, and "after these discussions, the ceasefire was able to go into force", it said.

Iranian authorities on Wednesday announced the gradual easing of internet restrictions imposed during the 12-day war with Israel, following the implementation of a ceasefire between the longtime foes.

"The communication network is gradually returning to its previous state," said the Revolutionary Guards' cyber security command in a statement carried by state media.

The country's communications minister, Sattar Hashemi, said in a post on X: "With the normalisation of conditions, the state of communication access has returned to its previous conditions".

Iran's nuclear facilities were "badly damaged" in US and Israeli strikes during the 12-day war with Israel, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei told Al Jazeera English on Wednesday.

"Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, thats for sure, because it has come under repeated attacks by Israeli and American aggressors," Baqaei told the broadcaster.

US President Donald Trump said he believed the war between Iran and Israel was finished, as both sides were keen to end the fight.

Asked why he was confident the conflict was over, Trump told reporters: "I dealt with both and they're both tired, exhausted."

"They fought very, very hard and very viciously, very violently, and they were both satisfied to go home and get out," said Trump.

President Donald Trump said that the United States would hold talks with Iran next week, with a possible agreement on the table about Tehran's nuclear programme.

"We're going to talk to them next week with Iran, we may sign an agreement, I don't know," said Trump.

President Donald Trump likened Washington's strike on Iran's nuclear facilities to the US dropping of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II.

"Actually, if you look at Hiroshima, if you look at Nagasaki, you know that ended a war too," Trump said as he wrapped up NATO's summit in The Hague.

"This ended a war in a different way, but it was so devastating."

On August 6, 1945, the United States bombed Hiroshima, killing 140,000 in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb's effects.

Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving around 74,000 people dead by the end of the year. Japan surrendered on August 15.

Iran's armed forces confirmed the death of top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Ali Shadmani following an Israeli air strike last week, state media reported.

The military's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, which Shadmani led, vowed "severe revenge" for what it called the "criminal act" by Israeli forces, announcing the commander had died from injuries sustained in the attack, according to the IRNA state news agency.

The Israeli military said on June 17 that it had killed Shadmani in a strike on a "command centre in the heart of Tehran".

Israel described him as "the most senior military commander" and "the closest figure to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei".

Shadmani died just days after he took over the role from Gholam Ali Rashid, who was killed in the first days of Israel's attacks.

The head of Israel's military said that Israeli commandos had operated secretly inside Iran during the countries' 12-day war.

Chief of staff Eyal Zamir in a televised address hailed the "coordination and tactical deception carried out by our air force and ground commandos", who "operated in secret, deep in enemy territory, and allowed us complete operational freedom".