Trump rejects Pentagon report that finds US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites only set back programme ‘by months'

Irish Times

7 hours ago

Donald Trump
has rejected a US intelligence report that found
US air strikes
only set back Iran's nuclear programme by months, and he declared Iran's nuclear sites 'completely destroyed'.
The initial classified US assessment of the US president's strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities over the weekend says they did not destroy two of the sites and likely only set back the nuclear programme by a few months, according to two people familiar with the report.
The White House said the intelligence assessment was 'flat out wrong'.
The US president attacked CNN and the New York Times, claiming they have teamed up to 'demean one of the most successful military strikes in history'.
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The US president also claimed in the post on his Truth Social platform that the two media organisations are 'getting slammed by the public'.
The White House said the intelligence assessment was 'flat out wrong'.
The report produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) – the intelligence arm of the Pentagon – concluded key components of the nuclear programme, including centrifuges, were capable of being restarted within months.
The report also found that much of Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium that could be put to use for a possible nuclear weapon was moved before the strikes and may have been moved to other secret nuclear sites maintained by
Iran
.
The findings by the DIA, which were based on a preliminary battle damage assessment conducted by US Central Command, which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, suggests Mr Trump's declaration about the sites being 'obliterated' may have been overstated.
According to the DIA report, the US strikes sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities, but did not collapse underground buildings, said one of the people familiar with its findings.
Some centrifuges remained intact, the Washington Post said, citing an unnamed person familiar with the report.
Mr Trump's administration told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday that its weekend strikes had 'degraded' Iran's nuclear programme, short of Mr Trump's assertion that the facilities had been 'obliterated.'
The ceasefire brokered by Mr Trump between Iran and Israel appeared to be holding on Wednesday a day after both countries signalled that their air war had ended, at least for now.
Each side claimed victory on Tuesday after 12 days of war, which the US joined with air strikes in support of Israel to take out Iran's uranium-enrichment facilities.
Mr Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said late on Tuesday that talks between the United States and Iran were 'promising' and that Washington was hopeful for a long-term peace deal.
'We are already talking to each other, not just directly but also through interlocutors. I think that the conversations are promising. We are hopeful that we can have a long-term peace agreement that resurrects Iran,' Mr Witkoff said in an interview on Fox News.
'Now it's for us to sit down with the Iranians and get to a comprehensive peace agreement, and I am very confident that we are going to achieve that,' he added.
Donald Trump expressed frustration at Iran-Israel ceasefire violations, by dropping the 'F' word when being questioned by media on the White House lawn.
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the attack had removed the nuclear threat against Israel and he was determined to thwart any attempt by Tehran to revive its weapons programme.
'We have removed two immediate existential threats to us: the threat of nuclear annihilation and the threat of annihilation by 20,000 ballistic missiles,' he said.
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said his country had successfully ended the war in what he called a 'great victory,' according to Iranian media.
Mr Pezeshkian also told Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman that Tehran was ready to resolve differences with the US, according to official news agency IRNA.
Israel launched the surprise air war on June 13th, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran, which denies trying to build nuclear weapons, retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites and cities.
The truce between the two appears fragile: Both Israel and Iran took hours to acknowledge they had accepted the ceasefire and accused each other of violating it.
Mr Trump scolded both sides but aimed especially stinging criticism at Israel, telling the close US ally to 'calm down now.' He later said Israel called off further attacks at his command.
Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, said he told his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, that his country would respect the ceasefire unless Iran violated it.
Mr Pezeshkian likewise said Iran would honour the ceasefire as long as Israel did, according to Iranian media.
Israeli armed forces chief of staff Eyal Zamir said a 'significant chapter' of the conflict had concluded but the campaign against Iran was not over. He said the military would refocus on its war against Iran-backed Hamas militants in Gaza. – Agencies