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Returning early from the Group of Seven summit in Canada early on Tuesday, United States President Donald Trump told reporters he believed Iran was “very close” to building nuclear weapons.

His comments were in keeping with increasingly threatening social media posts and language from Trump against Iran in recent days during Israel’s escalating conflict with its longtime Middle Eastern rival.

Since Friday, Israel has bombed Iran’s top nuclear facilities and has killed at least 14 Iranian nuclear scientists. Israel’s armed forces said the scientists “were key factors in the development of Iranian nuclear weapons” and “their elimination is a significant blow to the regime’s ability to acquire weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).”

Iran insists that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and for civilian purposes. It points to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s edict against nuclear weapons to back up its assertion.

But Trump’s comments on Monday echoed the claims made on multiple occasions by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for more than two decades – and repeated by him during the current conflict – to justify military action against Iran.

“In recent months, Iran has taken steps that it has never taken before: steps to weaponise enriched uranium,” Netanyahu said on Friday after the first wave of missiles struck Iranian nuclear facilities.

So is Iran indeed close to building a nuclear bomb as Trump and Netanyahu claim? And are there parallels between the accusations against Iran and the fraudulent allegations of nonexistent WMDs used by the US and its allies to attack Iraq in 2003?

We look at the facts and assessments of the US’s own intelligence community and the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

What does US intelligence say about Iran’s nuclear programme?

On March 25, Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, unambiguously told members of the US Congress that Iran was not moving towards building nuclear weapons.

“The IC [intelligence community] continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons programme he suspended in 2003,” she said, referring to a collection of US spy agencies that collaborate to make such assessments.

But Gabbard also said there had been an “erosion of a decades-long taboo in Iran on discussing nuclear weapons in public, likely emboldening nuclear weapons advocates within Iran’s decision-making apparatus”.

Iran’s “enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons,” she added.

On Monday, when reporters quoted Gabbard’s testimony to Trump, he said: “I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having” a nuclear weapon.

“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple,” he added.

Gabbard, when asked about Trump’s comments, told reporters that she and the US president were aligned – but did not explain how, given their differing assessments of Tehran’s nuclear programme.

What does the US military think?

On June 10, three days before Israel launched its attacks on Iran, Erik Kurilla, the commander of the US military’s Central Command, told a Senate committee that Tehran was “continuing to progress towards a nuclear weapons” programme.

On the surface, that assessment appears to be at odds with Gabbard’s from March. But Kurilla did not say that the US military thought Iran currently had a programme to develop nuclear bombs – but that it was progressing towards such a stage.

What the general did do was to question why Iran had high levels of enriched uranium. “Stockpiles of enriched uranium continue to accumulate in facilities across the country under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme,” he said. “Iran continues to gain knowledge and skills directly linked to nuclear weapon production.”

What is uranium enrichment, and what has Iran been doing?

Iran has been enriching uranium at up to 60 percent purity – and that has concerned the IAEA and critics of Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Uranium enrichment is the process of increasing the concentration of the uranium-235 isotope in natural uranium, which normally contains only about 0.7 percent U-235. To build a nuclear weapon, uranium must be enriched to about 90 percent U-235. Once enriched to those levels, uranium is considered “weapons-grade”.

Once uranium is enriched to 60 percent, it reduces the time required to reach weapons-grade, which is why higher enrichment levels attract greater scrutiny from watchdogs like the IAEA.

Iran denies pursuing nuclear weapons and asserts its legitimate right, as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including uranium enrichment.

Does the IAEA think Iran is building nuclear weapons?

Addressing the UN watchdog’s Board of Governors on June 9, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said Iran had accumulated 400kg (880lb) of uranium enriched to 60 percent.

“While safeguarded enrichment activities are not forbidden in and of themselves, the fact that Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon State in the world that is producing and accumulating uranium enriched to 60 percent remains a matter of serious concern,” he said in a report to the Board of Governors.

On Thursday, a day before Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the IAEA board passed a resolution censuring Tehran and accusing it of violating its safeguards-related commitments to the UN agency.

But in an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Grossi was emphatic that Iran’s alleged violations of its assurances had not led his agency to conclude that Tehran was building bombs.

“We did not have any proof of a systematic effort to move into a nuclear weapon,” he said.

“We did not have any proof of a systematic effort to move into a nuclear weapon.” @iaeaorg Director General affirms his agency’s findings about Iran’s nuclear program. pic.twitter.com/TmHx7rtfjJ

Meanwhile, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Atomic Energy Organization have rejected the IAEA’s resolution, insisting that Tehran remained committed to its safeguards obligations.

Can Iran build nuclear weapons soon – and how soon?

In his June 10 testimony, Kurilla claimed that if Iran were to decide to “sprint to a nuclear weapon”, it had enough stockpiles and centrifuges to produce up to 25kg (55lb) of weapons-grade uranium in “roughly one week” and enough to build up to 10 weapons in three weeks.

But Grossi, in the CNN interview on Tuesday, suggested a very different timeline.

“Certainly, it was not for tomorrow, maybe not a matter of years,” he said. “I don’t think it was a matter of years.”

And neither Kurilla, a military commander, nor Grossi, the boss of the UN’s nuclear regulator, have indicated how long they think it might take a country to actually build atomic weapons once they have a stockpile of weapons-grade uranium, even if that were Iran’s intention.

Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the US-based nonprofit Arms Control Association, suggested Israel also knows that Iran has no imminent ability to build a bomb.

“If there was truly an imminent proliferation risk, if Israel really thought that Iran was dashing towards a nuclear weapon, I think there would have been a much more sustained campaign trying to disrupt activities at Fordow and other activities at the Natanz site,” she told Al Jazeera, referring to Iranian nuclear facilities.

Are there echoes of 2003 and WMDs in the current debate?

To several observers of the Middle East, there are.

In the lead-up to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the US and the United Kingdom asserted that Iraq possessed WMDs, including chemical and biological weapons, and that it was pursuing a nuclear weapons programme.

These claims were central to justifying military action under the argument that Iraq posed an imminent threat to regional and global security. The US intelligence assessments at the time, including the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, supported this view although with varying degrees of confidence.

After the invasion, extensive searches found no active WMD programmes in Iraq.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rebuffed President Trump’s request to leave the country and warned that any US strikes on Iran would have “irreparable consequences.”

According to Palestinian health officials, at least 72 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since dawn, including 29 people who had been waiting for aid trucks. This is the most recent carnage affecting people who are frantically awaiting food for their afflicted families.

Medical sources told Al Jazeera that the most recent daily killing of Palestinian aid workers in recent weeks occurred on Salah al-Din Street near the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza on Wednesday morning. According to them, the attack left over 100 people injured.

In another deadly Israeli attack on a home south of Gaza, an airstrike struck the Zeitoun neighborhood, killing eight people and injuring others, according to medical sources.

In Israel’s attacks on tents of displaced people in the south of Gaza, eight more people were killed, according to medical sources, and others were injured, according to medical sources. A woman and two children were among the victims, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

According to reports from news agencies, medical personnel were also injured at the Maghazi camp in central Gaza. A husband, wife, and children from a single family were among the ten people killed in the strike, according to Wafa.

Hamas criticized Israel’s assault on residential areas in the enclave as well as its targeting of aid seekers at distribution centers run by the contentious US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The group claimed that “war crimes” are perpetrated by the occupation, the systematic abuse of innocent civilians, the escalation of massacres, the targeting of the starving, forced evictions, and the shrinking of areas that the occupation claims are “safe.” Israel’s attacks are “a part of the brutal extermination that has been going on for almost 20 months,” it continued.

When asked for comment, the Israeli military disclosed to Reuters that it was investigating reports of people dying while waiting for food.

The bodies of 20 people who had been shot dead by Israeli forces in northern Gaza were left on the street for five days before the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs received approval to coordinate their recovery, according to Al Jazeera reporters on the ground later on Wednesday.

He requested a bag of flour.

After Israel partially lifted a nearly three-month total blockade on food, medicines, and other essential items, the GHF began distributing a small amount of food aid in Gaza at the end of May, which sparked fears of famine for the 2.3 million people who live there. Israel has in effect kept the punishing blockade in place by allowing no other aid to enter.

In the midst of the chaos, desperate Palestinians are given a tight window of opportunity to search for food, making Israeli mass killings of aid seekers a somber occurrence.

The GHF has been criticized by the UN and other major humanitarian organizations for its refusal to cooperate, citing concerns that it prioritizes Israeli military needs over humanitarian needs and avoids organizations with decades of experience in providing food and medicine to Gaza’s entire population.

Ahmed Ghaben described the relative’s death to Al Jazeera as “a martyr,” as his nephew was reported to have traveled to bring his children a bag of flour. He left 14 members of his family. He was hungry, so he went to get aid. He fought against the opposition. He went to the flour bag.

According to Tareq Abu Azzoum, who spoke from Deir el-Balah, it is abundantly clear that Israeli forces are attacking civilians who have only ever gone to get bags of flour or food. According to witnesses, the soldiers used a variety of weapons, including tanks and drones. The civilians have also been shot down by snipers who have been stationed in nearby hills.

The Israeli military asserts that these enraged citizens pose a security threat, but these assertions have not been proven by credible evidence.

In Gaza’s most bloody day of violence so far, Israeli troops killed at least 70 Palestinians and injured hundreds as they sought help on Tuesday.

Since late May’s distribution resumed, the Gaza-based Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday that 397 Palestinian aid seekers had died and more than 3, 000 had been injured.

Warning about urgent fuel

Since the conflict broke out in October 2023, Gaza’s health ministry has reported an increase in the number of fatalities to 55, 637, and the number of injured has increased to 129, 880.

The ministry also issued a warning about severe fuel shortages, stating that only three days’ worth of fuel were available at the territory’s few fully functional hospitals.

The ministry claimed that Israeli forces were preventing international aid organizations and UN organizations from gaining access to hospital fuel storage facilities under the pretext that they were in “red zones” and threatened to shut down hospitals that rely on generators for power.

A top Houthis leader in Yemen, one of Iran’s key allies, said they will continue to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip until Israeli “aggression stops, and the siege is lifted, while much of the world’s attention is now focused on the Israeli-Iran conflict and what the United States may or may not do.

Five months after the two nations’ most intense military escalations, cricket’s governing body has confirmed that India and Pakistan will compete in the Round-Robins of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025.

According to the tournament’s schedule, which the ICC announced on Wednesday, the two cricket powerhouses will also face off in the group stage of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026. The marquee event will take place on June 14.

Due to the two countries agreeing an ICC-brokered deal in December 2024 to face each other at neutral venues at upcoming ICC events, India will host the 50-over World Cup 2025 from September 30 through November 2. However, all of Pakistan’s games, including any appearances in the semifinals and final, will take place in Sri Lanka.

Before a ceasefire was reached on May 10, India and Pakistan were engaged in their worst standoff since 1999, which lasted for four days. There are conflicting accounts about the casualties, but more than 70 have been killed by missile, drone, and artillery fire on both sides.

Numerous Indian media outlets reported that the ICC has requested that the ICC avoid assigning them the same group as Pakistan in international competitions in response to the escalations.

However, BCCI vice president Rajeev Shukla stated that due to the ICC’s engagement, India will meet its western neighbor at ICC events even though it does not “want to play with Pakistan in bilateral series because of the government’s stand.”

According to Shukla, who was quoted by Indian media as saying, “The ICC is also aware, whatever is happening, they will look into it.”

Former and current cricketers from both nations posted messages on social media supporting their respective armed forces during the standoff, which heightened fears of an all-out war.

The ICC confirmed the schedule for the 50-over tournament on Monday, with the India-Pakistan round-robin stage match scheduled for Colombo, Sri Lanka, during the first week of the tournament, despite the severity of the situation.

The R Premadasa Stadium is most likely the location of Pakistan’s six matches, which will also take place in the capital of Sri Lanka.

The first knockout match will take place on October 29 in Colombo if Pakistan is selected to advance to the semifinals. The match will take place in Guwahati on the same day if they do not advance.

Similar decisions will be made regarding the final, with Bengaluru hosting the event if it is not hosted by Pakistan but Colombo getting the hosting rights if not.

The eight-team Women’s Cricket World Cup will begin on September 30 when hosts India take on Sri Lanka at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

The other participating countries include Sri Lanka, Australia, England, Bangladesh, Bangladesh, New Zealand, South Africa, and Bangladesh.

In June of next year, India and Pakistan will play in the United Kingdom in their Group 1 match of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.

At 13:30 GMT, the game will take place at Birmingham’s Edgbaston Cricket Ground.

The tournament will take place in seven locations throughout England and Wales, one of which was New Zealand’s last victory in 2024.

In the first match of the tournament, England hosts Sri Lanka at Edgbaston on June 12 at 17:30 GMT.

There will be twelve teams, split into two groups.

At the conclusion of the qualifying rounds in 2026, Group 1 will consist of Australia, India, Pakistan, South Africa, and two qualifiers.

England, New Zealand, West Indies, Sri Lanka, and two qualifiers make up Group 2.

The Oval Cricket Ground in London will host the semifinals on June 30 and July 2, while Lord’s Cricket Ground will host the final on July 5.

The last time India and Pakistan met was on October 6 at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 in Dubai, where they clinched a six-wicket victory.