The United States Air Force jets struck three nuclear sites in Iran on Saturday, and President Donald Trump claimed that the strikes completely destroyed the nuclear facilities. On the other hand, US media reports shared a Pentagon evaluation that the attacks only set Tehran’s atomic program back by a few months. According to the Washington Post, CNN, and the New York Times reports, preliminary intelligence assessments said that the US attack failed to destroy Iranian underground nuclear facilities.
Two individuals familiar with the assessment informed CNN that Iran’s “enriched uranium was not destroyed” and that the centrifuges remained “largely intact.” Another source conveyed to the US broadcaster that, according to the assessment, the enriched uranium had been transported prior to the United States’ strikes on Sunday.
President Trump has claimed that the American strikes resulted in the destruction of nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. “Fake news CNN, in collaboration with the failing New York Times, has conspired to undermine one of the most successful military operations in history,” Trump stated on his Truth Social platform. “The nuclear sites in Iran are completely destroyed!” he added.
When questioned by reporters regarding Iran’s efforts to reconstruct its nuclear program on Tuesday, Mr. Trump stated: “That place is under a rock. That place is demolished.” The White House characterized the intelligence assessment as “flat-out wrong.”
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt conveyed in a statement to CNN: “Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs accurately on their targets: total destruction.”
Still Ambiguous: What Happens to Iran’s Nuclear Program
Steve Witkoff, the US’s special envoy to the Middle East, likewise dismissed the intelligence report. “All three of those had most, if not all, the centrifuges damaged or destroyed in a manner making it nearly impossible for them to reinstate that program,” Witkoff explained to Fox News on Monday evening. “In my opinion, and according to many other experts who have examined the raw data, it will require several years.”
Witkoff additionally described the leak of the report as “treasonous.” “It ought to be investigated. And whoever did it, whoever is responsible for it, should be held accountable,” he added.
Reporting from Washington, D.C., Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi remarked that an information war is currently in progress. “There are evidently individuals in Washington who are highly motivated to leak a very preliminary bombing assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency,” he stated.
He further observed that White House correspondents received a press release indicating that the “leaking of this purported assessment is a deliberate effort to diminish President Trump and to undermine the integrity of the courageous fighter pilots who executed a precisely conducted mission to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program.”
“This marks the initial instance, following the bombing, of the evolving informational landscape and the manner in which this information will be utilized, as well as its potential impact on Donald Trump moving forward,” Rattansi added.
What did the DIA report state?
A preliminary report prepared by the DIA indicated that rather than dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, the US bombings merely set it back by several months. Before Israel attacked Iran on June 13, US agencies had observed that if Iran expedited its efforts to assemble a nuclear weapon, it would require approximately three months.
The DIA’s five-page report now estimates that this timeframe will be extended by less than six months, as reported by The New York Times. According to initial assessments, the US strikes obstructed the entrances to two of the facilities but did not cause the collapse of the underground facilities.
Furthermore, the DIA report indicates that the US agency believes Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was transported prior to the strikes, which resulted in minimal destruction of nuclear material.
Shortly after the US strikes on June 22, Mehdi Mohammadi, an adviser to the chairman of the Iranian parliament, stated that the authorities had preemptively evacuated the Fordow facility. Iran has been anticipating strikes on Fordow for several days. This nuclear facility was evacuated, and no irreversible damage was sustained during today’s attack,” Mohammadi remarked.
Trump stated on Wednesday that he does not accept the Iranian claims regarding the transfer of enriched uranium from the Fordow nuclear facility. “I believe they did not have an opportunity to extract anything because they acted swiftly,” said Trump. “Had it taken two weeks, perhaps, but removing such material is extremely challenging and perilous. “Furthermore, they were aware of our impending arrival,” Trump added. “And if they know we are coming, they are unlikely to be present at the site.”
