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Irish Times
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
Trump rejects Pentagon report that finds US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites only set back programme ‘by months'
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'. READ MORE 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
The Guardian
12 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites only set back program months, Pentagon report says
An initial classified US assessment of Donald Trump'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 program by a few months, according to two people familiar with the report. The report produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency – the intelligence arm of the Pentagon – concluded key components of the nuclear program 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 Trump's declaration about the sites being 'obliterated' may have been overstated. Trump said in his televised address on Saturday night immediately after the operation that the US had completely destroyed Iran's enrichment sites at Natanz and Fordow, the facility buried deep underground, and at Isfahan, where enrichment was being stored. 'The strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace,' Trump said in his address from the White House. While the DIA report was only an initial assessment, one of the people said if the intelligence on the ground was already finding within days that Fordow in particular was not destroyed, later assessments could suggest even less damage might have been inflicted. Long regarded as the most well-protected of Iran's nuclear sites, the uranium-enrichment facilities at Fordow are buried beneath the Zagros mountains. Reports have suggested that the site was constructed beneath 45-90 metres (145-300ft) of bedrock, largely limestone and dolomite. The White House disputed the intelligence assessment, which was first reported by CNN. '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. The Guardian revealed last Wednesday that top political appointees at the Pentagon had been briefed at the start of Trump's second term that the 30,000lb 'bunker buster' GBU-57 bombs meant to be used on Fordow would not completely destroy the facility. In that briefing, in January, officials were told by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency at the Pentagon that developed the GBU-57 that the bombs would not penetrate deep enough underground and only a tactical nuclear weapon would wipe out Fordow. The US strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities involved B2 bombers dropping 12 GBU-57s on Fordow and two GBU-57s on Natanz. A US navy submarine then launched roughly 30 Tomahawk missiles on Isfahan, US defense officials said at a news conference Sunday. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth repeated Trump's claim at the news conference that the sites had been 'obliterated', but the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Dan Caine, who helped oversee the operation, was more measured in his remarks. Caine said that all three of the nuclear sites had 'sustained severe damage and destruction' but cautioned that the final battle-damage assessment for the military operation was still to come.
