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US airstrikes did not destroy Iran’s nuclear capability and only set it back by a few months, news agency Reuters reported on Tuesday citing a preliminary US intelligence assessment. The intel report came hours after both Iran and Israel signalled that the air war between the two nations had ended, at least for now, after US President Donald Trump publicly scolded them for violating a ceasefire he announced at 0500 GMT.
As the two countries lifted civilian restrictions after 12 days of war – which the US joined with an attack on Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities – each sought to claim victory. Trump said over the weekend that the US deployment of 30,000-pound bombs had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program. But that claim appeared to be contradicted by an initial assessment by one of his administration’s intelligence agencies, Reuters reported citing three people familiar with the matter. One of the sources said Iran’s enriched uranium stocks had not been eliminated, and the country’s nuclear program, much of which is buried deep underground, may have been set back only a month or two.
What does the intel report claim?
Iran says its nuclear research is for civilian energy production. The White House said the intelligence assessment was “flat out wrong.” According to the report, which was produced by the Defence Intelligence Agency, the strikes sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities, but did not collapse underground buildings, said one of the people familiar with its findings. Some centrifuges still remained intact after the attacks, the Washington Post said, citing an unnamed person familiar with the report. Trump’s administration told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday that its weekend strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities had “degraded” Iran’s nuclear program, short of Trump’s earlier assertion that the facilities had been “obliterated.”
Trump calls it fake news
Reacting to the report, Trump dubbed it as “fake news” and added media reports were meant to demean “one of the most successful military strikes in history”. Trump claimed the nuclear sites in Iran were completely destroyed in the attack.
“FAKE NEWS CNN, TOGETHER WITH THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES, HAVE TEAMED UP IN AN ATTEMPT TO DEMEAN ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MILITARY STRIKES IN HISTORY. THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED! BOTH THE TIMES AND CNN ARE GETTING SLAMMED BY THE PUBLIC!,” he wrote on the Truth Social.
Quoting a brief interaction with Fox News, Trump posted a clip of Steve Witkoff, United States Special Envoy to the Middle East, where he contested the claims and said the American soldiers put 12 bunker-buster bombs on Fordow. “There’s no doubt that it breached the canopy…and there’s no doubt that it was OBLITERATED. So, the reporting out there that in some way suggests that we did not achieve the objective is just completely preposterous,” said Witkoff.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the attack on Iran had removed the threat of nuclear annihilation and was determined to thwart any attempt by Tehran to revive its weapons program. “We have removed two immediate existential threats to us: the threat of nuclear annihilation and the threat of annihilation by 20,000 ballistic missiles,” Netanyahu said.
