US strikes ‘only set Iran's nuclear programme back by few months'

Telegraph

6 hours ago

US military strikes on three of Iran's nuclear facilities did not destroy the country's bomb programme and only set it back by months, an intelligence report has found.
The strikes on the heavily fortified enrichment facilities at Fordow and Natanz did not do as much damage as US officials hoped, according to an initial assessment.
The early findings, produced by the Pentagon, found much of Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium was moved before the strike.
The bombings sealed off the entrances of the target nuclear facilities and did not succeed in collapsing the underground buildings, the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) found.
After the US bombing mission and days of attacks by the Israeli Air Force, the agency estimated Iran's feared nuclear programme was delayed by less than six months.
The early findings are at odds with Donald Trump's claims that Operation Midnight Hammer 'completely and totally obliterated' Tehran's nuclear enrichment facilities.
The White House said the assessment was 'flat-out wrong' and that it was leaked by an 'anonymous, low-level loser'.
'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 programme,' Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement.
'This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as 'top secret' but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community.
'Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.'
Mr Trump dispatched seven B-2 stealth bombers from American soil to drop massive bunker-busting bombs on the Iranian enrichment facilities on Sunday.
The US pummelled Iran's nuclear programme with 14 GBU-57 bombs, each weighing 30,000lbs, while a US submarine launched a further two dozen Tomahawk missiles, also striking the Isfahan atomic site.
In a televised address to the nation, Mr Trump hailed the mission's success, adding: 'This cannot continue. There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days.'
Iran launched a retaliation for the attack on Monday, firing missiles at America's largest and most fortified military base.
Experts have disputed the claims that the heavily fortified facilities and the stockpile of enriched uranium were 'obliterated'.
Two people familiar with the classified assessment told CNN the stockpile of enriched Uranium, the key component for making a nuclear weapon, was secretly moved and not destroyed.
'So the (DIA) assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops,' one source said.
Satellite images of convoys leaving all three sites in recent days appeared to support Iran's claims that it moved its 400-kg stockpile before the attack.
The DIA report supports the claims, indicating that the sites were not damaged as much as hoped and that Iran still controls almost all of its nuclear materials.
In which case, Tehran could still make a nuclear weapon relatively quickly.
Onboard Air Force One en route to The Hague for a Nato summit, Mr Trump said it was an 'honor' to 'destroy' Tehran's nuclear capabilities.