US intel says strikes did not destroy Iran nuclear program
US media on Tuesday cited people familiar with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) findings as saying the weekend strikes did not fully eliminate Iran's centrifuges or stockpile of enriched uranium.
The aerial bombardments and missile strikes sealed off entrances to some facilities without destroying underground buildings, according to the report.
US media coverage of the DIA assessment appeared to anger Trump, who insisted news outlets like CNN and The New York Times were out to "demean" the military strike by saying it only set back Iran's nuclear program by a few months.
"THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED!" Trump posted in all caps on his Truth Social platform.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the authenticity of the DIA assessment but said it was "flat-out wrong and was classified as 'top secret' but was still leaked" in an attempt to undermine Trump and discredit the military operation.
"Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration," Leavitt posted on X.
Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steven Witkoff, appeared on Fox News to trumpet the White House version.
"The reporting out there that in some ways suggests that we did not achieve the objective is just completely preposterous," he said Tuesday.
Witkoff repeated the assertion that the nuclear facilities at Natanz, Isfahan and Fordo had been "obliterated."
"All three of those had most if not all of the centrifuges damaged or destroyed," he said. "In a way it will be almost impossible for them to resurrect that program for -- in my view and in many other experts' views who have seen the raw data, it will take a period of years."
US B-2 bombers hit two Iranian nuclear sites with massive GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs over the weekend, while a guided missile submarine struck a third with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Trump called the strikes a "spectacular military success" and said they had "obliterated" the nuclear sites, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Washington's forces had "devastated the Iranian nuclear program."
General Dan Caine, the top US military officer, has offered a more cautious tone, saying the strikes caused "extremely severe damage" to the Iranian facilities.
Iran's government said Tuesday it had "taken the necessary measures" to ensure the continuation of its nuclear program.
"Plans for restarting (the facilities) have been prepared in advance, and our strategy is to ensure that production and services are not disrupted," the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, said in a statement aired on state television.
An adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meanwhile said his country still had stocks of enriched uranium and that "the game is not over."
Israel launched an unprecedented air campaign targeting Iranian nuclear sites, scientists and top military brass on June 13 in a bid to set back Tehran's nuclear efforts.
Trump had spent weeks pursuing a diplomatic path to replace the nuclear deal with Tehran that he tore up during his first term in 2018, but he ultimately decided to take military action.
The US operation was massive, with Caine saying it involved more than 125 US aircraft including stealth bombers, fighters, aerial refueling tankers, a guided missile submarine and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Middle East Eye
CIA director confirms Iran nuclear sites 'severely damaged'
In an unusual move on Wednesday, CIA director John Ratcliffe released a statement confirming that the US strikes on Iran's three nuclear sites last week "severely damaged" the facilities. This follows US media reports that US intelligence assessments found the strikes only set Iran back a few months. That reporting had visibly angered US President Donald Trump, who maintains the sites were "totally obliterated". "CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran's Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes," Ratcliffe said. "This includes new intelligence from an historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years," he added. "CIA continues to collect additional reliably sourced information to keep appropriate decision-makers and oversight bodies fully informed. When possible, we will also provide updates and information to the American public, given the national importance of this matter and in every attempt to provide transparency."
Gulf Today
2 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Trump sees 'progress' on Gaza, raising hopes for ceasefire
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that "great progress" was being made to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as a new ceasefire push began more than 20 months since the start of the conflict. "I think great progress is being made on Gaza," Trump told reporters ahead of a NATO summit in the Netherlands, adding that his special envoy Steve Witkoff had told him "Gaza is very close." He linked his optimism about imminent "very good news" for the Gaza Strip to a ceasefire agreed on Tuesday between Israel and Hamas backer Iran to end their 12-day war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also suggested that Israel's blitz of Iran's nuclear and missile facilities, as well as its security forces linked to overseas militant groups, could help end the Gaza conflict. Netanyahu faces growing calls from opposition politicians, relatives of hostages being held in Gaza and even members of his ruling coalition to bring an end to the fighting. In one of the war's deadliest incidents for the Israeli army, it said seven of its soldiers were killed on Tuesday in southern Gaza. People, some carrying aid parcels, walk along the Salah Al Din road near the Nusseirat refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. AFP Key mediator Qatar announced on Tuesday that it would launch a new push for a ceasefire, with Hamas on Wednesday saying talks had "intensified." "Our communications with the brother mediators in Egypt and Qatar have not stopped and have intensified in recent hours," Hamas official Taher Al Nunu told AFP. He cautioned, however, that the group had "not yet received any new proposals" to end the war. The Israeli government declined to comment on any new ceasefire talks beyond saying that efforts to return Israeli hostages in Gaza were ongoing "on the battlefield and via negotiations". Agence France-Presse
Gulf Today
2 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Violence is becoming the new normal of Trump's America
Eric Lewis, The Independent Political violence has existed as long as politics. From both the left and the right, violence against political enemies has been a feature, not a bug, of radical political movements. Vladimir Lenin developed a "science of terror", in which violence was essential to overthrow the state. In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler declared: "The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence." And Benito Mussolini declared political violence a necessary tool both in his early days as a socialist and after his conversion to fascism. Radicals demonise their enemies and insist on responding with violence justified by any means. So there is nothing new about the political violence that is becoming increasingly normalised in American life. While much is aimed at Democrats, the Republicans are not immune. The 2024 campaign saw two assassination attempts on Trump, and, in 2017, Steve Scalise, now the Republican Majority Leader of the House, was shot at a softball game. The social media echo chamber, amplified by easy access to weapons, draws a variety of misfits, conspiracists and millenarian nuts out of the woodwork. But by any objective measure, political violence is primarily counter-revolutionary violence, and at the moment that is most obviously of a type egged on by MAGA rhetoric and the dehumanising and mocking of victims. In Minnesota, a pro-Trump, anti-abortion gunman posing as a police officer murdered the former Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in cold blood and put 17 bullets into Democratic State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, who miraculously survived. This, in a state known for "Minnesota Nice". The MAGA-sphere went into immediate overdrive to blame it on "the libs". Senator Mike Lee of Utah posted photos of the gunman with the caption, "This is what happens when Marxists don't get their way." In one brief sentence, Lee tells the lie that the killer was somehow a MAGA political enemy rather than a Trump supporter, and that the problem with violence is Marxists and Marxism. The United States has many issues but adherence to or even knowledge of the principles of Karl Marx is not one of them. A second post by Lee says "Nightmare on Waltz [sic] street," a bizarre attempt at humour suggesting Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was to blame for the shootings. So, with two people dead and two gravely injured, children left without parents and a quiet, progressive community terrorised, the response from the right is that it is the liberals' fault. There is no need for apology or even empathy: it is not a serious matter. Trump initially said there was no place for political violence, but then took the time to say he would not call Governor Walz to discuss the terrible violence because Walz was "a mess," grossly incompetent, and a "terrible governor." There is no shared empathy in tragedy for Trump. Political enmity is the cardinal value. Yet two weeks ago, Democratic Senator Alex Padilla was manhandled and thrown to the ground by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's security goons for daring to try to speak out at a press conference in California. They knew that he was a US Senator, and he repeated it multiple times. In the face of video evidence, the Trump Administration simply lied. Trump was reported as saying that Padilla, the son of Mexican immigrants who worked menial jobs to send him to MIT, "looked like an illegal." Just two of Padilla's 53 Republican colleagues in the Senate spoke out; the rest were silent. Additionally, in May, Mayor of Newark Ras Baraka was arrested and Congresswoman LaMonica McIver was charged with felony assault and obstructing ICE. Last week, the New York City Comptroller, Brad Lander, was roughed up and arrested by ICE for demanding to see a warrant. All are Democrats, and three are people of colour. When then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi's home was invaded in 2022 in an attempt to kill her (she wasn't home), her octogenarian husband, Paul, had his skull fractured with a hammer. First, the MAGA-sphere lit up with the baseless rumour that this was a gay encounter gone wrong, and then they treated it as a joke. Trump went full stand-up comic: "We'll stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi, who ruined San Francisco — how's her husband doing, anybody know?" But he had more: "And she's against building a wall at our border, even though she has a wall around her house, which obviously didn't do a very good job." And of course, during the insurrection of January 6 2021, when thousands of people were looking to hang Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence, and invaded Nancy Pelosi's office, this too was par for the course. For hours, Trump did nothing to stand them down and was accused of suggesting that Pence indeed deserved to be hanged. When back in power, he indiscriminately gave a blanket pardon to more than 1,000 of those who invaded the capital, including those involved in violence and injury to more than 1,000 police officers, and multiple deaths. These were, in Trump's view, the real patriots. Political violence against enemies has been coupled with comic relief to convince people that they don't really need to worry about these victims or what is going on in the streets or federal buildings of America.
