Israel-Iran conflict live updates: Ex-Iran nuke negotiator’s massive claim on ABC’s 730

A Former Iranian diplomat says a US attack on the nation’s nuclear facilities “failed”, among other alarming claims.

Welcome to our coverage of the escalating situation in the Middle East.

President Donald Trump has continued to unleash on US media outlets – and a CNN reporter – after it was reported leaked military intelligence found US strikes on Iran left most of its nuclear infrastructure intact and had likely only set back the country’s capacity to develop nuclear weapons “by months”.

Mr Trump announced Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will hold a news conference at 8am Thursday EST (10pm Thursday AEST) to “fight for the dignity” of US pilots amid doubts over the damage to the facilities.

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

The announcement came after the CIA confirmed it has “credible intelligence” showing Iran’s nuclear program has been “severely damaged” in the weekend strikes.

Meanwhile, comments by NATO’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte have gone viral after he seemingly referred to Mr Trump as “daddy” over his handling of the Middle East crisis.

Mr Rutte has since walked back the eyebrow-raising remark, denying he called the President “daddy”.

Earlier, Mr Trump fired off at Israel and Iran as the fragile ceasefire took hold after 12 days of strikes that pummelled the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities.

Iran said on Tuesday it was ready to return to negotiations with the US, but Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country would continue to “assert its legitimate rights” to the peaceful use of atomic power.

After Mr Trump angrily berated both sides for early violations of the truce on Tuesday, Tehran announced it would respect the terms of the deal if Israel did the same, while Israel said it had refrained from further strikes.

Both Israel and Iran appeared to claim victory following the announcement of the truce.

Follow on for updates.

Originally published as Israel-Iran conflict live updates: Ex-Iran nuke negotiator’s massive claim on ABC’s 730