A new US intelligence report claims that the airstrikes ordered by President Donald Trump on Iran’s nuclear sites did not fully destroy two of the facilities. However, the strikes likely set back Iran’s nuclear program by just a few months, reported The New York Times.
The report, prepared by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), says two of the main nuclear sites — Fordow and Natanz — were not completely destroyed. The DIA is the intelligence branch of the Pentagon and worked with US Central Command, which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, to assess the damage after the strikes.
According to the report, key equipment like centrifuges — which are used to enrich uranium — can be restarted within a few months. This means Iran could resume its nuclear program sooner than expected.
The report also says Iran moved much of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium before the strikes. Some of this material may have been relocated to other hidden nuclear facilities that Iran maintains in secret locations.
This contradicts President Trump’s claim that Iran’s nuclear program was completely destroyed.
TRUMP CALLS OPERATION A SPECTACULAR SUCCESS
In his televised address on Saturday night, President Trump praised the mission as a huge success.
“The strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace,” Trump said from the White House.
He said the US had wiped out the nuclear enrichment facilities at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan — three of Iran’s most important nuclear sites.
But the Pentagon’s internal report paints a different picture. The report also claimed that Fordow, in particular, showed signs of surviving the strikes. This is one of Iran’s most protected facilities, built deep beneath the Zagros mountains under about 45 to 90 meters (roughly 150 to 300 feet) of hard rock.
Fordow’s underground location was already a concern for the Pentagon earlier this year. In a January briefing, top Pentagon officials were warned that even the US’s strongest non-nuclear bomb — the 30,000-pound GBU-57 “bunker buster” — might not fully destroy the facility.
In last weekend’s attack, B-2 bombers dropped 12 of these GBU-57 bombs on Fordow and two more on Natanz. Meanwhile, a US Navy submarine launched around 30 Tomahawk missiles at Isfahan.
WHITE HOUSE PUSHES BACK AGAINST REPORT
The White House has refuted the intelligence assessment and called the report misleading.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement, “The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program.”
At a Sunday news conference, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth repeated Trump’s claim that the sites were “obliterated.” However, General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who helped lead the mission, offered a more cautious view.
Caine said the sites had “sustained severe damage and destruction” but pointed that the final damage assessment had not yet been completed.
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