White House pushes Israeli assessment of damage to Iran's nuclear sites
The White House on Wednesday pushed the Israeli assessment of the U.S. military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, as part of its ongoing effort to argue the hits destroyed Iran's nuclear program.
The White House asked the press pool traveling with the president to send out the statement on behalf of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, just after President Trump publicly hit back at reporting that Iran's nuclear program was only set back a matter of months.
'The devastating US strike on Fordo destroyed the site's critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable. We assess that the American strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other elements of Iran's military nuclear program, has set back Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years,' the commission statement said.
'This achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material,' it added.
The president was asked at a press conference if the U.S. is relying on Israeli intelligence, after he read the statement, and he denied it, saying the Iranians have had the same assessment.
The administration's internal assessment found Saturday's strikes of the three facilities delayed Iran's nuclear program by only a few months, despite initial assertions from Trump administration officials that those sites had been destroyed. The report also said Iran had moved much of its enriched uranium before the strikes, according to multiple outlets.
Trump, while speaking at the NATO summit in The Hague, called media outlets that reported on the internal assessment, including CNN, The New York Times and NBC, 'scum' and insisted the U.S. attack led to 'total obliteration' of Iran's nuclear sites.
Other top officials also pushed back, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said an investigation was underway into leaks of a preliminary classified report, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who told Politico 'very significant, substantial damage was done.'
Updated 10:19 a.m. EDT
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