Cliff Notes
- A preliminary US assessment indicates that recent strikes on Iranian nuclear sites only set back Tehran’s programme by a few months, contrary to claims of total destruction by Donald Trump.
- The report suggests that key components of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure remain intact, raising concerns about the effectiveness of the attacks.
- While the Pentagon disputed the characterisation of minor damage, the White House has denied the assessment, labelling it as inaccurate and stemming from unreliable sources.
US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites not as effective as Trump claims
While Donald Trump has been claiming US strikes “totally destroyed” sites in Iran over the weekend, a new report suggests this may not be the case.
According to NBC News, which cites three sources with knowledge of the matter, a preliminary US assessment has found the attacks have set back Tehran’s program by only a matter of months.
Assessing the damage at the Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites is expected to be a difficult task, and the Defence Intelligence Agency, which compiled this report, is not the only agency tasked with the job.
“We were assuming that the damage was going to be much more significant than this assessment is finding,” one of the three sources said.
“This assessment is already finding that these core pieces are still intact. That’s a bad sign for the overall program.”
One source, cited by Reuters, said the assessment was not universally accepted, and there is significant disagreement.
But the initial assessment indicates the attacks may not have been nearly as successful as Trump has claimed.
One of the sources said Iran’s enriched uranium stocks had not been eliminated.
In fact, that source said the country’s nuclear program may have been set back only a month or two.
White House denial
The Pentagon disputed the notion that the damage was minor, but it does not dispute that the DIA assessment exists.
The White House’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, has denied the report, which has also been run by CNN.
“This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong,” she said, adding it was “leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community”.
Sources
US strikes did not destroy Iran nuclear programme, says intelligence assessment – BBC