After two days of a ceasefire, Israel’s military chief is signaling more strikes on Iran could be on the horizon. With Tehran’s nuclear program believed to be badly damaged after Saturday’s U.S. strikes, Israel is now focused on “preserving aerial superiority, preventing the advancement of nuclear projects and preventing the advancement of threatening long-range missiles,” Defense Minister Israel Katz told Israel’s Channel 12 on Thursday, according to the New York Times.
Katz noted Israel would have killed Iran’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the nearly two-week war “if he had been in our sights.” Katz also reiterated his threat above, saying Israel doesn’t need U.S. President Trump to authorize another attack on Iran. “We are saying unequivocally, once the Iranians violate, we will strike,” Katz said Thursday.
Iran, for its part, vowed a tough response should Israel strike Iran again, with foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Thursday promising a “decisive response” to “any breach by the Zionist regime,” according to Iranian state media.
Iran’s damage assessment from Saturday’s U.S. strikes: “The losses have not been small, and our facilities have been seriously damaged,” Araghchi said on state-run TV.
Caution on Capitol Hill: “Certainly, this mission was successful insofar as it extensively destroyed and perhaps severely damaged and set back the Iranian nuclear arms program,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, after the upper chamber was briefed by administration officials Thursday. “But how long and how much really remains to be determined by the intelligence community itself,” Blumenthal said.
Sen. Chris Murphy, the other Connecticut senator: “To me, it still appears that we have only set back the Iranian nuclear program by a handful of months. There’s no doubt there was damage done to the program, but the allegations that we have obliterated their program just don’t seem to stand up to reason,” he told reporters Thursday, and added, “I just do not think the president was telling the truth when he said this program was obliterated.”
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona: “The president said something, the secretary of Defense repeated it, before they had anything from the [Defense Intelligence Agency]. I think that’s pretty clear to people. I mean, he basically made his own assessment based on very limited information.…The airplanes weren’t even back in Missouri by the time he’s doing his own personal [battle damage assessment].” But, he continued, “I think what’s really fair to say is there’s been a lot of damage done to the Iranians’ ability to enrich uranium, and that has set them back if they wanted to develop a nuclear weapon.” Read more at The Hill.
Update: American forces defended Qatari base with the “largest single Patriot engagement in U.S. military history,” CJCS claims. When Iran fired roughly a dozen missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on June 23—retaliation for Saturday’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities—the base was already largely emptied of the U.S. forces that normally occupy it, Joint Chiefs Chairman Air Force Gen. Dan Caine told reporters in a combative briefing at the Pentagon Thursday. (Full transcript here.)
About 44 soldiers remained behind, manning the Patriot missile batteries that defend the base. The War Zone has more details from Thursday’s briefing, here. Caine also offered a few new details about the development of the 15-ton bunker-busting bombs used in the U.S. strikes. The Associated Press has more on that, here.
Developing: The U.S. quietly built a new base near Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast in case of war with Iran. And that means the base, known as Logistical Support Area Jenkins, is now bustling with activity—including “dozens of structures and tents, vehicles, paved roads, an upgraded munitions storage site and construction at several locations across the mile-wide facility.” The New York Times has more, assisted by satellite imagery, here.
Commentary: How to restart nuclear diplomacy with Iran. A renewed nuclear agreement should be the starting point, but discussions must include regional players and Iran’s proxy network, argues Jesse Marks, who worked as a Middle East policy advisor in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the Biden and Trump administrations. Read on at Defense One, here.
Additional reading:
Welcome to this Friday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1950, President Truman ordered U.S. forces to South Korea following the invasion by North Korea.
2026 spending proposal
DOD’s budget request finally drops, combining a real decrease with a one-time boost. The Pentagon rolled out its $848.3 billion fiscal year 2026 discretionary budget request on Thursday, a small real decline from last year’s enacted $831 billion budget—and only the largest chunk of the Trump administration’s plan to spend more than one trillion dollars on defense next year. The balance would come through a one-time, $113-billion infusion from Congress via the reconciliation bill currently in the Senate.
The roll-out itself was a stark departure from past years: instead of an overview briefing by the Pentagon’s comptroller followed by service officials, Thursday’s presentation was by one senior defense official who was not authorized to speak on the record.
The Pentagon has posted only limited documentation online with links to budget summaries accompanied by “(Coming Soon!)” in red print. Defense One’s Meghann Myers has more, here.
Coverage continues:
Additional reading: “Military Domestic Violence Convictions Skyrocketed After Commanders Were Removed from Process,” Steve Beynon and Patricia Kime reported Tuesday for Military-dot-com.
Homeland security
After Trump joined Israel’s war against Iran, the Department of Homeland Security decided to return anti-terrorism money it had held back from cities like Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco, Politico reported Thursday.
Background: “Chicago had filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in May, claiming the funds that Congress had allotted for the city were being illegally withheld by DHS. San Francisco, Seattle, Denver and Boston joined in the lawsuit when their funds were also cut.”
Thirteen cities are involved in the program, known as Securing the Cities. More, here.
Border check-in from the Rio Grande valley: The New York Times found mostly “Empty Farms and Frightened Workers,” according to Edgar Sandoval reporting Friday. The TLDR version: “As workplace raids have eroded [Trump’s] popularity and sparked angry protests across the country, the border region has been eerily quiet.”
In other surveys this week: “More Than 9 In 10 Voters Say Politically Motivated Violence In The U.S. Is A Serious Problem,” according to Quinnipiac University.
Related reading: “Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman to lie in state as suspect faces court date,” AP reported Friday from Minneapolis.
Etc.
China is testing a drone “mothership” that can carry 100 small drones, reports Nikkei Asia, citing Chinese state media. The Jiutian is described as having a wingspan of 25 meters and a payload of six metric tons. A bit more, and a screenshot from CCTV, here.
Read the full article here
