US strikes on Iran only set back nuclear plans by months, report says
The report released by the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) – the intelligence arm of the Pentagon – contradicts statements made by US President Donald Trump on Saturday night, immediately following the conclusion of what he called a 'targeted and precise' operation.
Trump said in a televised press conference along with his Vice President JD Vance, State Secretary Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth that Washington's strikes had 'completely and fully obliterated' Iran's nuclear sites.
Trump stated that Iran's Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities were dealt damage that sets them back years. The sites were attacked by the US' 13,600-kilogram bunker buster bombs.
While satellite imagery showed significant damage to the sites, the report suggests that most of the damage was contained to above-ground structures.
At the Fordow uranium enrichment facility, Iran's most well-protected site, located deep underground, the entrance has collapsed, and the infrastructure has sustained damage, necessitating time for repairs.
However, the underground infrastructure remains intact, according to an official familiar with the situation. The report's findings also showed that some of Iran's highly enriched uranium was moved out of multiple sites before the US strikes began and survived.
The report asserted that Tehran had moved the uranium to other secret nuclear facilities it maintains. The DIA also found that most of Iran's centrifuges are largely intact.
'Flat-out wrong'
The White House firmly pushed back on the assessment, calling it 'flat-out wrong'.
'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,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
'Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration,' she added.
Trump has said in comments and posts on social media in recent days, including Tuesday, that the strikes left the sites in Iran 'totally destroyed' and that Iran will never rebuild its nuclear facilities.
Netanyahu said in a televised statement on Tuesday that 'for dozens of years I promised you that Iran would not have nuclear weapons and indeed ... we brought to ruin Iran's nuclear programme."
Netanyahu, speaking a day after Trump announced a US-brokered ceasefire between the two nations, claimed that the campaign on Iran was a 'historic victory'.
'We removed two imminent existential threats – the annihilation threat by nuclear bombs and the annihilation threat with 20 thousand ballistic missiles.'
Iran said on Tuesday that it was ready to return to the negotiating table with the United States. However, Tehran asserted that it will always continue to defend its 'legitimate rights' and will respond to any Israeli breach of the current truce.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
6 hours ago
- LeMonde
Historian Françoise Thom: 'Faced with Putin, Europeans are in a position of strength without realizing it'
Recently, the "fog of war" has morphed into the "fog of diplomacy." There is no point trying to untangle the confused impulses of the Trump administration. We must stand on the only solid ground available: Russia's objectives – especially since it is always on that side that the American president ends up. Here, the situation is clear. The Russian economy has been plunging at an accelerated pace. Militarily, Russia is making progress, but not quickly enough to win the race against economic collapse. The Kremlin's men have a long memory. They remember that most of the Russian Empire's territorial expansions were achieved with the complicity and help of one or more foreign powers: in the wake of Prussia and Austria for the partition of Poland in 1772; by coming to an agreement with Turkey to reconquer the Caucasian states in 1920-1921; by relying on Germany for the reconquest of the Baltic States and the annexation of Galicia (the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, signed in 1939). So why not turn to Donald Trump to bring Ukraine to heel? Military force is always a last resort in the eyes of those in the Kremlin. They prefer manipulation and subversion. And this is where they excel, thanks to Western ignorance of Russian methods of projecting power, which remain unchanged. In addition to co-opting a foreign accomplice, the second hallmark of Russian expansion is the salami tactic. Russia slices up its victim (as we saw with Ukraine: First Crimea, then the Donbas). Once the first slice is taken, it moves on to the second, then the third. The Russian proposals made to Steve Witkoff [special envoy of the US president, who visited Russia on August 6] illustrate this approach. Vladimir Putin demanded that the United States, as a prerequisite for hypothetical negotiations toward a ceasefire, force the Ukrainians to evacuate the parts of the Donetsk region they still control, which are the strongest fortified lines on the Ukrainian front, in exchange for a symbolic piece of territory in the Sumy region.
France 24
8 hours ago
- France 24
Trump eyes three-way meeting with Putin, Zelensky
Trump spoke after what he described as a "very good" call with European leaders, including Zelensky -- even as Russian forces made their biggest advance into his country in more than a year. "If the first one goes okay, we'll have a quick second one," Trump told reporters as he was questioned about the face-to-face in Anchorage with his Russian counterpart, set for Friday. "I would like to do it almost immediately, and we'll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelensky and myself, if they'd like to have me there." The high-stakes summit comes with Trump struggling to broker an end to the conflict, and Zelensky and his European allies earlier urged the Republican to push for a ceasefire. The stepped-up Russian offensive, and the fact Zelensky has not been invited to Anchorage, have heightened fears that Trump and Putin could strike a deal that forces painful concessions from Ukraine. The US leader promised dozens of times during his 2024 election campaign to end the conflict on his first day in office but has made scant progress towards securing a peace deal. He threatened "secondary sanctions" on Russia's trading partners over its invasion of Ukraine but his deadline for action came and went last week with no measures announced. According to an AFP analysis of battlefield data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War, Russian forces made their biggest 24-hour advance into Ukraine in more than a year on Tuesday. As the war rages on in eastern Ukraine, Zelensky flew to Berlin and joined Chancellor Friedrich Merz on an online call with other European leaders, and the NATO and EU chiefs, in which they talked to Trump and urged a united stance against Russia. 'Severe consequences' The consensus was for Trump to secure a ceasefire, and Trump said Russia would face "severe consequences" if it didn't halt its offensive. But Zelensky also voiced doubt about Moscow's intentions and said: "I have told my colleagues -- the US president and our European friends -- that Putin definitely does not want peace." Trump on Monday played down the possibility of a breakthrough in Alaska but said he expected "constructive conversations" with Putin. "This is really a feel-out meeting a little bit," Trump said. But he added that eventually "there'll be some swapping, there'll be some changes in land". Merz said Ukraine is ready to negotiate "on territorial issues" but stressed that legal recognition of Russian occupations "would not be up for debate". After the call, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said Europe, the United States and NATO had "strengthened the common ground for Ukraine" while NATO head Mark Rutte declared: "The ball is now in Putin's court." The Russian foreign ministry had earlier branded the frantic round of diplomacy "politically and practically insignificant" and an attempt at "sabotaging" US and Russian efforts to end the conflict. 'Wool over our eyes' Despite the upbeat comments by European leaders, Russia's offensive in eastern Ukraine was gaining speed and seizing ground Wednesday. With the world's eyes on the looming Alaska summit, Russia has made rapid advances this week in a narrow but important section of the front line in Ukraine. The AFP data analysis showed that the Russian army took or claimed 110 square kilometers (42.5 square miles) on August 12 compared to the previous day. It was the most since late May 2024. In recent months, Moscow has typically taken five or six days to progress at such a pace, although Russian advances have accelerated in recent weeks. The head of the Donetsk region on Wednesday ordered civilians with children to evacuate from towns and villages under threat. Ukrainian soldiers in Kramatorsk, an eastern city about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the front, said they had low expectations for Trump's meeting with Putin. Artem, a 30-year-old serviceman, said the war would likely continue for "a long time." "Putin is massing an army, his army is growing, he is stockpiling weapons, he is pulling the wool over our eyes." burs-ft/md © 2025 AFP
Euronews
8 hours ago
- Euronews
'Putin is bluffing,' Zelenskyy says as Europe pushes for ceasefire
Just two days before a historic meeting in Alaska between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, a virtual summit was initiated by the leaders of Ukraine and Germany in an effort to remind the world of one of Kyiv's main diplomatic principles: "Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine." Following the call with Trump and European leaders, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the top priority both for Wednesday's talks and Friday's summit is a ceasefire, a sentiment that, according to Zelenskyy, Trump agreed with. "We talked about ceasefire today. President Trump said this is one of his priorities in conversation with President Putin," Zelenskyy said after the call during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. "I very much hope that some agreement will be reached, because so far all the talks held with ended only with him increasing military presence, intensifying attacks." According to Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz, European leaders were jointly trying to steer the Alaska meeting between Trump and Putin "in the right direction." "We want the correct sequence: first, a ceasefire — this must be at the very beginning. Later, there may be a framework agreement. Third, Ukraine is ready to negotiate on talks and territorial issues, but our starting point is the contact line," Merz explained. Pressure must be put on Russia for peace Zelenskyy says Ever since Trump confirmed his meeting with Putin, Zelenskyy has been trying to get support from Ukraine's partners in an effort to convince the US president not to trust the Russian leader. "I told Trump and all of our European partners that Putin is bluffing," Zelenskyy said after the virtual meeting with the US president on Wednesday. "Putin is bluffing that the sanctions do not work, that they are nothing. In fact sanctions are hitting Russian economy hard," Zelenskyy said, adding that Russia's president has not changed his ultimate goal and he still wants to "to occupy the whole of Ukraine." Merz, together with French President Emmanuel Macron, both reiterated that Ukraine has to be present at any talks on putting an end to Russia's war. "We have addressed several important points. We made it clear that Ukraine must be at the negotiating table if there is to be a follow-up meeting," Merz said. Possible trilateral meeting Following the virtual meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump said he was "always going to meet Vladimir Putin" only, without Ukraine's president and European leaders present at the talks. Trump described the upcoming Alaska talks as "setting the table for the second meeting" which would include Putin and Zelenskyy. "We are going to have the second meeting if the first one goes well," Trump said, adding that he would prefer the second meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy to take place "almost immediately." When asked what would the format of the second meeting be, Trump suggested it would be either bilateral or trilateral, depending on whether Zelenskyy and Putin wanted the US president there. Zelenskyy said that the next steps and the possibility of the second meeting will be discussed with Trump immediately after his talks with Putin. "The US President has repeatedly spoken about this. He suggested to me that after the meeting in Alaska, we would be in contact and discuss all the results, if any, and determine our next steps," Zelenskyy said.
