U.S. strikes on Iran nuclear sites only set program back months: report
A new U.S. intelligence report found that Iran's nuclear program has been set back only a few months after a U.S. strike and was not 'completely and fully obliterated' as U.S. President Donald Trump has said, according to multiple people familiar with the early assessment.
The intelligence report issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency on Monday contradicts statements from Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the status of Iran's nuclear facilities.
Two sources confirmed the contents of the report to the Associated Press, while Reuters said it had spoken to three people familiar. The people were not authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
According to the people, the report found that while the Saturday strikes at the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites did significant damage, they were not totally destroyed.
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The assessment found that at least some of Iran's highly enriched uranium was moved out of multiple sites before the U.S. strikes and survived, according to the people, and it also found that Iran's centrifuges are largely intact.
At the deeply buried Fordo uranium enrichment plant, the entrance collapsed and infrastructure was damaged, so that will take time to fix, but the underground infrastructure was not destroyed, according to one of the people. The person also said that previous assessments had warned of this outcome at Fordo.
The White House strongly 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.'
1:42
Israel says world should 'thank' U.S. after strikes on Iranian nuclear sites
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.
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Trump's administration on Tuesday told the U.N Security Council that its weekend strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities had 'degraded' Iran's nuclear program, short of Trump's earlier assertion that the facilities had been 'obliterated.'
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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 program.'
He said the U.S. joining Israel was 'historic' and thanked Trump.
One source told Reuters the assessment was not universally accepted and had generated significant disagreement.
The Pentagon disputed the notion that the damage to Iran's nuclear program was minor, though it did not dispute that the DIA assessment exists.
'Based on everything we have seen — and I've seen it all — our bombing campaign obliterated Iran's ability to create nuclear weapons,' U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement provided to Reuters.
'Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target—and worked perfectly. The impact of those bombs is buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran; so anyone who says the bombs were not devastating is just trying to undermine the President and the successful mission.'
6:56
U.S. strikes inflicted 'severe damage' at Iran nuclear sites, Pentagon says
Initial military assessments can change as more information comes to light and it is not uncommon for opinions to vary across different U.S. intelligence agencies.
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Assessing the damage at the Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites is expected to be a difficult task, and the DIA is not the only agency tasked with the job.
The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the DIA assessment. ODNI coordinates the work of the nation's 18 intelligence agencies, including the DIA, which is the intelligence arm of the Defense Department, responsible for producing intelligence on foreign militaries and the capabilities of adversaries.
The intelligence assessment was first reported by CNN on Tuesday.
Democrats have previously said Trump's claims that the weekend strikes eliminated or seriously set back Iran's nuclear program were not yet backed by evidence.
'There's zero evidence that I've seen that the nuclear program was completely and totally obliterated as Donald Trump has claimed,' House of Representatives Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Monday.
Classified briefings on the matter for members of the House of Representatives and Senate were canceled on Tuesday.
Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and David Klepper contributed to this report. Additional files from Reuters
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