6 days after US struck Iran, nuke program damage is still unclear: Live updates

USA Today

6 hours ago

It has been almost one week since U.S. bombers conducting "Operation Midnight Hammer" gouged massive holes into the Earth at Iranian nuclear development sites.
The smoke has cleared from the rubble but not from the controversy surrounding just how much damage was done, how soon Iran could rebuild the program or even whether it will. Also not clear is when or whether the full extent of the damage will emerge.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. attack obliterated the Iranian program and prompted the ceasefire. However, a U.S. official briefed on the Defense Intelligence Agency's initial assessment told USA TODAY the core components of Iran's nuclear program appeared to remain intact.
An outraged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday countered by calling the bombings a "resounding success" and accusing some media outlets of "trying to make the president look bad." Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also chimed in, saying the bombings "failed to achieve anything significant," forcing Israel and the U.S. to abandon their attacks.
"They could not accomplish anything," he said. "They failed to achieve their goal. They exaggerate to conceal and suppress the truth."
Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, took a middle road, saying the Iranian program suffered "enormous damage." He said three primary sites – Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan – were hit hard but that others locations were not affected at all. The nuclear program can be rebuilt, he said, but he declined to put a timeline on it.
"What I can tell you, and I think everyone agrees on this, is that there is very considerable damage," Grosso told French radio.
What nuclear capability does Iran have?
The U.S. intelligence community has been consistent: It does not believe Iran has been building a nuclear weapon. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said as much when she testified to Congress about Iran's nuclear program in March. U.S. spy agencies, Gabbard said, 'continue to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003."
Trump and Netanyahu dismissed that assessment. Trump has doubted U.S. intelligence agencies before − for example, over who was responsible for the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi (it was Saudi Arabia). Netanyahu, meanwhile, has been talking about Iran's existential nuclear threat to Israel for as along as he's been in the public eye.
Still, U.S. intelligence agencies, Trump, Netanyahu and the United Nations' nuclear watchdog − the International Atomic Energy Agency − agree on the issue of Iran's uranium.
All believe Iran had developed a large stockpile, and at a sufficiently enriched level, to sustain a nuclear reaction that could be used in a bomb if it decided to. But how quickly Iran would have been able to "sprint to a nuclear weapon," as Gen. Michael E. Kurilla put it on June 10, is also a matter of dispute, and estimates ranged from one week to one year.
−Kim Hjelmgaard
Why did the US strike Iran nuke facilities?
Trump ordered the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities − Operation Midnight Hammer − effectively joining a war that Israel started on June 13 when it began bombing Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure. Israel said it helped the U.S. coordinate and plan the strikes.
Trump said all three sites were "totally obliterated." A Pentagon assessment was less definitive, and Iran says its nuclear program will hardly skip a beat. The actual damage and the impact on Iran's program could become more clear in coming days.
Iran-US conflict has simmered for decades
The saga between Iran and the United States goes back seven decades and 13 presidents, a relationship that broke down after the people of Iran rose up in 1978 against a regime the United States helped install in 1953. While Trump's decision to bomb the country's nuclear sites has Americans on edge, the United States has a long history of punishing Iran's government, most often through sanctions.
At the center of it all is the state of Israel, the United States' key ally in the region − one that consistently finds itself at war with Iran or with the Islamic extremist groups that are proxies for Iran's interests. For some key moments in the relationship between the U.S. and Iran, read more here.
Contributing: Reuters