The ultimate success of the U.S. and Israeli strikes, and so Trump's decision to intervene militarily, depends on how Iran chooses to react. Some analysts fear this action will accelerate Iranian efforts to build a nuclear weapon, with hardliners in Tehran now viewing it as an urgent priority.

The U.S. bombing of Iran's key Fordow nuclear site has "seriously and heavily damaged" the facility, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in an interview with CBS News. "No one exactly knows what has transpired in Fordow.

After the strikes, Trump said "Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated."

US airstrikes on Iran set back the country’s nuclear program by one to two years, a Pentagon spokesman said, adding to uncertainty around the status of the country’s facilities after President Donald Trump said they’d been obliterated.

Iran on Wednesday officially suspended its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, a move triggered by the unprecedented Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear facilities.

The arrests are a sign of the uncertainty felt by Iran's security establishment after the Israeli and U.S. attacks. Authorities have escalated a security crackdown on alleged Mossad agents following the 12-day conflict in which Israel attacked nuclear and military sites across the country,

Asghari, 35, is among tens of thousands of Afghans whom Iran has deported home in the past few weeks, in the fallout of a conflict the United Nations says risks further destabilising Afghanistan, already battling a humanitarian crisis.