Donald Trump doubles down on claims Iran nuclear site strikes were 'virtual obliteration'
US President Donald Trump has reiterated his claims that US air strikes "obliterated" Iranian nuclear sites after labelling an intelligence leak that cast doubt on the amount of damage to Iran's nuclear program as "fake news".
"We hear it was obliteration, it was a virtual obliteration," Mr Trump told reporters at the NATO summit in The Hague.
"You take a look at the ground above, don't forget the flame is all under the ground, but everything above, if you look at the before and the after pictures, everything is burned black.
Mr Trump's assertion comes after a leaked preliminary US intelligence assessment reportedly found the weekend strikes only set back Iran's nuclear program by less than six months.
The assessment found the bombings did not collapse underground buildings on the nuclear sites, and Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed, with some of it potentially already moved to secret nuclear sites.
The Defense Intelligence Agency assessment was preliminary, and a clear picture was yet to form, according to the reports.
"The intelligence was very inconclusive," Mr Trump said during the NATO press conference.
"They've [Iran] been raided. They're not going to be building bombs for a long time."
Mr Trump also fired off at US media outlets that reported on the leaked intelligence, describing CNN and the New York Times, among other outlets, as "scum".
During the press conference, Mr Rubio reiterated that Iran was "in bad shape" and "way behind today compared to where they were just seven days ago".
"The conversion facility … We can't even find where it is, where it used to be on a map because the whole thing is blackened out, it's wiped out," he said.
"Then we dropped 12 of the strongest bombs on the planet, right down the hole in two places; everything underneath that mountain is in bad shape."
In an earlier interview with Politico, Mr Rubio said he believed Iran was "much further away from a nuclear weapon" after the strike.
"That's the most important thing to understand — significant, very significant, substantial damage was done to a variety of different components, and we're just learning more about it," he said.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the assessment was: "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.
The Israel Defense Forces said it believed Iran's nuclear project and missile program had been set back by years.
Israel's military said on Tuesday it was "still early" to assess the damage caused to Iran's nuclear sites.
"It is still early to assess the results of the operation," Israeli military spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin said in a televised press conference.
Israel and Iran have agreed to a ceasefire agreement, which came into effect earlier on Tuesday.
The ceasefire briefly broke down before both sides of the conflict once again committed not to launch further strikes at each other.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief, Rafael Grossi, said his top priority was to return to Iran's nuclear facilities to assess the impact of US and Israeli military strikes and verify its stocks of enriched uranium.
'During these attacks, we have seen extensive damage at several nuclear sites in Iran, including its uranium conversion and enrichment facilities," Mr Grossi said.
In a letter to the Iranian foreign minister, Mr Grossi said he was seeking his inspectors' return to Iranian sites, including the three plants where it was enriching uranium until Israel launched strikes on June 13.
He added that the IAEA had identified additional impact points at nuclear sites at Fordow and Natanz after the US strike, with two impact holes at Natanz above the underground halls that had been used for enrichment and storage.
Iran's parliament approved a bill on Wednesday to suspend cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, according to state news outlet Nournews.
The bill, which must be approved by Iran's unelected Guardian Council to become law, indicated that any future inspection by the IAEA would need approval by the Supreme National Security Council.
The state media reported that Iran would accelerate its civilian nuclear program, citing the Parliament Speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.
Mr Qalibaf has criticised that the watchdog "has put its international credibility up for sale", by refusing to condemn the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Iranian parliament's national security committee approved the bill's general outline this week
The committee's spokesperson said the bill would suspend the installation of surveillance cameras, inspections, and the filing of reports to the IAEA.
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