From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Deri denies Trump claim that Israel sent agents to Fordo site to review damage after strikes
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Shas chairman Aryeh Deri denies US President Donald Trump’s claim that Israel sent agents into Iran’s Fordo nuclear site following this weekend’s American airstrike, declaring that “no one has visited there.”
Trump on Wednesday told reporters at the NATO summit in The Hague that Israel had “guys that go in there after the hit, and they said it was total obliteration.”
Speaking with the ultra-Orthodox Kikar Hashabbat news site, Deri rejects Trump’s claim, stating that “no one has visited there yet.”
Despite the lack of on-the-ground eyes, Deri declares, “I can tell you that the existential threat… has been removed from the people of Israel.”
Deri, a regular observer in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, was informed of Israel’s June 13 attack on Iran in advance, later writing in the Shas party newspaper HaDerech that Israel chose to take military action against Tehran’s nuclear program following “long months of discussions, hundreds of hours of security reviews, analyses and risk assessments.”
The Times of Israel Community.