James M. Acton | Politico
Speaking on Sunday morning, Vice President JD Vance stated that the Saturday U.S. air strikes on Iran had “set their nuclear program back substantially.” His comments came soon after President Donald Trump said that the operation had “completely obliterated” key nuclear facilities in the country… In reality, Iran can likely reconstitute its program rapidly — perhaps in a year or so. What’s more, after the U.S. strikes, there is also now a real danger that Tehran will make the decision to go further than enriching and amassing uranium and actually build a bomb.
Matt Stieb | Intelligencer
Many uncertainties have followed President Trump’s bombing of Iran on Saturday night… As Iran, Israel, and the U.S. game out their next steps, I spoke with Iranian nuclear expert Nicole Grajewski, a fellow at the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. We discussed what could happen next in this unclear war and why strikes on Iran could become the “new normal” in the region.
Karen DeYoung and Alex Horton | The Washington Post
President Donald Trump has proclaimed that the U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities was an unmitigated success… U.S. strikes on Iran may have been a tactical win, with all three targets hit and all planes safely returned home. But defense officials and nuclear experts are still trying to determine whether the strikes achieved their stated strategic goal of eliminating Iran’s nuclear program, even as Trump declared late Monday afternoon that Iran and Israel had agreed to end their war.
Mark Mazzetti, Jonathan Swan, Maggie Haberman, Eric Schmitt, and Helene Cooper | The New York Times
When Israel began its assault on Iran, President Trump kept his distance. But within days he was on a path that led to an extensive bombing mission aided by political and military ruses… Interviews with administration officials, Trump allies and advisers, Pentagon officials and others familiar with the events show how, during this period, different factions of Mr. Trump’s allies jockeyed to win over a president who was listing in all directions over whether to choose war, diplomacy or some combination.
Gerry Shih, Warren P. Strobel, and Souad Mekhennet | The Washington Post
In the fall, long before President Donald Trump embarked on an effort to resolve concerns over Iran’s nuclear program through negotiations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already set Israel on the road to war, according to current and former Israeli officials. Meanwhile, Israeli officials were pursuing another track in their preparations — to sway Washington. Israeli officials have long believed that military action with U.S. participation to target the Iranian nuclear program would be more effective than Israel going alone.
Reuters
The national security committee of Iran's parliament approved the general outline of a bill meant to fully suspend Tehran's cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on, citing committee spokesperson Ebrahim Rezaei.
Jill Lawless and Ella Joyner | AP News
European nations worked to keep diplomatic efforts to curb the Israel-Iran war alive as the two countries traded strikes following the United States’ weekend attack on Iran’s nuclear program, followed by a retaliatory Iranian missile strike Monday on a U.S. base in Qatar… The crisis topped the agenda for European Union foreign ministers meeting Monday in Brussels, where diplomats agonized about the potential for Iranian retaliation to spark a wider war and global economic instability.
Isaac Chotiner | The New Yorker
On Saturday, President Donald Trump brought the United States into Israel’s war against Iran… Late on Saturday, I spoke by phone with James M. Acton, the chair and co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. During our conversation… we discussed why even a successful strike might do less damage to the Iranian nuclear program than the Trump Administration hopes it will, whether the action could lead to a larger conflict with Iran, and why Trump’s decision to pull out of Obama’s nuclear deal wrecked the best chance to curtail Iran’s nuclear program.
Corey Hinderstein | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
In March, Congress transferred $185 million from a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) program focused on nonproliferation to one responsible for designing, building, maintaining, and transporting U.S. nuclear weapons… But increasing the weapons budget while slashing the Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation (DNN) funding is a recipe for national security failure... Making such steep cuts is counterproductive: Not only could it increase nuclear proliferation and terrorism threats, but it will also make the job of nuclear deterrence even more difficult.