DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) 鈥 Israel and Iran seemed to honor the fragile ceasefire between them for a second day Wednesday and U.S. President Donald Trump asserted that American and Iranian officials will talk next week, giving rise to cautious hope for longer-term peace.
Trump, who helped negotiate the ceasefire that took hold Tuesday on the 12th day of the war, told reporters that he was not particularly interested in restarting negotiations with Iran, insisting that U.S. strikes had destroyed its nuclear program. Earlier in the day, an Iranian official questioned whether the United States could be trusted after .
鈥淲e may sign an agreement, I don鈥檛 know,鈥 Trump said. 鈥淭he way I look at it, they fought, the war is done."
Iran has not acknowledged any talks taking place next week, though U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff has said there have been direct and indirect communication between the countries. A sixth round of U.S.-Iran negotiations was scheduled for earlier this month in Oman but was canceled after Israel attacked Iran.
Earlier, Trump said the ceasefire was going 鈥渧ery well,鈥 and added that Iran was 鈥渘ot going to have a bomb, and they鈥檙e not going to enrich.鈥
Iran has insisted that it will not give up its nuclear program. In a vote underscoring the tough path ahead, its parliament agreed to fast-track a proposal that would effectively stop the country鈥檚 , the U.N. watchdog that has monitored the program for years.
Ahead of the vote, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf criticized the IAEA for refusing 鈥渢o even pretend to condemn the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities鈥 that the U.S. carried out Sunday.
鈥淔or this reason, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran will suspend cooperation with the IAEA until security of nuclear facilities is ensured, and Iran鈥檚 peaceful nuclear program will move forward at a faster pace," Qalibaf told lawmakers.
IAEA Director General said he wrote to Iran to discuss resuming inspections of their nuclear facilities. Among other things, Iran claims to have moved its highly enriched uranium ahead of the U.S. strikes, and Grossi said his inspectors need to reassess the country鈥檚 stockpiles.
鈥淲e need to return,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e need to engage.鈥
French President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped Tehran would come back to the table. France was part of the 2015 deal with Iran that restricted its nuclear program, but the agreement began unraveling after Trump pulled the U.S. out in his first term. Macron spoke multiple times to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during the war.
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful, and U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb. However, Israeli leaders have argued that Iran could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon.
Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons, which .
Questions over effectiveness of the US strikes
The Israel Atomic Energy Commission said its assessment was that the U.S. and Israeli strikes have 鈥渟et back Iran鈥檚 ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.鈥 It did not give evidence to back up its claim.
The U.S. strikes hit three Iranian nuclear sites, which Trump said 鈥渃ompletely and fully obliterated鈥 the country's nuclear program. When asked about a U.S. intelligence report that found Iran鈥檚 nuclear program , Trump scoffed and said it would at least take years to rebuild.
Iran鈥檚 Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, confirmed that the strikes by American B-2 bombers using bunker-buster bombs had caused significant damage.
鈥淥ur nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that鈥檚 for sure,鈥 he told Al Jazeera on Wednesday, refusing to go into detail.
He seemed to suggest Iran might not shut out IAEA inspectors for good, noting that the bill before parliament only talks of suspending work with the agency, not ending it. He also insisted Iran has the right to pursue a nuclear energy program.
鈥淚ran is determined to preserve that right under any circumstances,鈥 he said.
Witkoff said late Tuesday on Fox News that Israel and the U.S. had achieved their objective with 鈥渢he total destruction of the enrichment capacity鈥 in Iran, and Iran's prerequisite for talks 鈥 that Israel end its campaign 鈥 had been fulfilled.
鈥淭he proof is in the pudding,鈥 he said. 鈥淣o one's shooting at each other. It's over.鈥
Hopes for a long-term peace agreement
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the ceasefire agreement with Iran amounted to 鈥渜uiet for quiet,鈥 with no further understandings about Iran's nuclear program going ahead.
Witkoff told Fox News that Trump is now looking to land 鈥渁 comprehensive peace agreement that goes beyond even the ceasefire.鈥
鈥淲e鈥檙e already talking to each other, not just directly, but also through interlocutors,鈥 Witkoff said, adding that the conversations were promising.
However, Baghaei, the Iranian spokesman, said Washington had 鈥渢orpedoed diplomacy鈥 with its attacks on nuclear sites, and that while Iran in principle was always open to talks, national security was the priority.
鈥淲e have to make sure whether the other parties are really serious when they're talking about diplomacy, or is it again part of their tactics to make more problems for the region and for my country,鈥 he said.
Grossi said Iran and the international community should seize the opportunity of the ceasefire for a long-term diplomatic solution.
鈥淥ut of the ... bad things that military conflict brings, there鈥檚 also now a possibility, an opening,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e shouldn鈥檛 miss that opportunity.鈥
A rare video by Mossad
Israel revealed details of the intelligence and covert operations that it said allowed the country to effectively target Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists and key facilities.
In a rare video released by Israel鈥檚 Mossad spy agency, chief David Barnea thanked the CIA for being a key partner, and his own agents for work over years to achieve what was 鈥渦nimaginable at first.鈥
鈥淭hanks to accurate intelligence, advanced technologies and operational capabilities beyond imagination, we helped the air force strike the Iranian nuclear project, establish aerial superiority in Iranian skies and reduce the missile threat,鈥 the agency said in a Facebook post alongside the video.
Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the military chief of staff, asserted that commandos had operated secretly 鈥渄eep inside enemy territory鈥 during the war.
Tehran on Tuesday put the death toll in Iran at 606, with 5,332 people wounded. The Washington-based Human Rights Activists group released figures Wednesday suggesting Israeli strikes on Iran had killed at least 1,054 and wounded 4,476.
The group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from multiple rounds of unrest in Iran, said 417 of those killed were civilians and 318 were security forces.
At least 28 people were killed in Israel and more than 1,000 wounded, according to officials.
In the past two weeks, Iran has executed six prisoners accused of spying for Israel, including three on Wednesday.
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Associated Press writers Josef Federman and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, Chris Megerian and Sylvie Corbet in The Hague, Netherlands, and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
