Did US strikes do any major damage to Iran nuclear sites? Trump's obliteration claims under dispute

Hindustan Times

4 hours ago

Iran's nuclear facilities have taken hits from both Israeli and US strikes. Israel has said that it brought the Iranian nuclear programme "to ruin", the US said that "total obliteration" of the same was achieved. However, Iran has clarified one thing: the "game is not over". A satellite image shows Iran's Fordow enrichment facility, along with damage from the June 23 airstrikes.(Reuters)
Conflicting reports have emerged over the Iranian nuclear programme, creating confusion on whether it is still in existence or completely 'obliterated'.
Even the US administration has given out conflicting reports with Pentagon saying the US strike likely did not cripple the core components of Iran's nuclear program below ground and Trump claiming to have 'completely and totally obliterated" the facilities.
Over the weekend, the US military, under Operation Midnight Hammer, dropped bunker buster bombs on Iran's nuclear sites at Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow. Iran's nuke programme 'totally obliterated': US
Following the strikes, the US President had said that a full payload of bombs was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. He even reshared a news and open source intelligence monitoring portal's post, "Fordow is gone".
Ahead of his meeting with world leaders at a NATO Summit in the Hague, Trump said that Iran's nuclear programme has been put back decades, adding that he believed "total obliteration" was achieved.
"This was a devastating attack," Trump told reporters.
Meanwhile, an early assessment report by US intelligence said that the American military strikes did not fully destroy Iranian nuclear sites, mentioning that it likely set the Middle Eastern country back only by months.
The assessment was reportedly produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's intelligence arm. ALSO READ | Bunker buster fallout: Iran's Fordow facility hit hard in US bombing, says UN nuclear watchdog chief
CNN reported, citing two people familiar with the assessment report, that Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed, with one of them saying that the centrifuges are largely "intact". 'So the (DIA) assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops,' the person said.
According to Reuters, the assessment also found that at least some of Iran's highly enriched uranium had been moved out of multiple sites ahead of the US strikes, thus surviving the attacks.
However, the White House was quick to dismiss the intelligence report, terming it "flat-out wrong". Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the leak of the alleged assessment is a "clear attempt to demean President Trump".
'Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration," she added.
Donald Trump, when asked about the assessment report, said, "they really don't know".
The US President had earlier also claimed that the American strikes "completely and totally obliterated" Iran's nuclear enrichment sites. Iran's nuke brought 'to ruin', still early to access: Israel
The Israeli military had also launched several strikes at Iran's nuclear facilities at Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow, with some being hit twice.
The military on Wednesday said that it was "still early" to assess the damage caused to Iran's nuclear programme.
The remarks from the Israeli military spokesman, Brigadier General Effie Defrin, came after the release of an early assessment US intelligence report. "It is still early to assess the results of the operation," he stated.
However, Defrin believed that the Israeli military "delivered a significant hit to the nuclear programme", adding that they also delayed it "by several years".
The chief of the Israeli military, Eyal Zamir, said late Tuesday that Israel and the US had set back Iran's nuclear programme "by years".
In a televised statement to the nation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "For dozens of years, I promised you that Iran would not have nuclear weapons and indeed ... we brought to ruin Iran's nuclear programme."
He said Israel has "thwarted Iran's nuclear project", warning that if Tehran tries to rebuild it, then "we will act with the same determination, with the same intensity, to foil any attempt".
After accepting the US-proposed ceasefire as well, Israel had said that they removed a dual immediate existential threat - both in the nuclear and ballistic missile fields. Game is not over: Iran
Iran, however, whose nuclear programme is at the centre of the whole row, has said that the game is not over.
A close aide of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the game is not over, adding that Tehran still has stocks of enriched uranium amid global concerns over the whereabouts of the vital nuclear component.
The Iranian government on Tuesday said that it had "taken the necessary measures' to ensure the safety of its nuclear programme. "We are taking stock of the damage" caused by the airstrikes, Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation's head was quoted as saying by AFP earlier.
"Plans for restarting (the facilities) have been prepared in advance, and our strategy is to ensure that production and services are not disrupted," Mohammad Eslami added. But what did the UN nuclear watchdog say?
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is yet to conduct an assessment of Iran's nuclear facilities.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday that his top priority is getting his inspectors back to Iran's nuclear sites to assess the impact of the US and Israeli military strikes, and verify its stocks of enriched uranium.
"This is the number 1 priority," Grossi said at a press conference.
The IAEA chief was also asked if Iran had informed him about the status of its enriched uranium stockpile, particularly its uranium enriched up to 60 per cent purity. Grossi responded saying that Iran had sent him a letter on June 13, informing the UN nuclear watchdog that it would "take special measures" to protect its nuclear materials and equipment.
"They did not get into details as to what that meant, but clearly that was the implicit meaning of that. We can imagine this material is there," Grossi said, suggesting much of that material had survived the attacks, Reuters reported.