Sites not destroyed: US intel reports Iran capable of resuming its nuclear program; Trump’s claim on Iran strikes disputed | World News
United States air strikes on Iran’s three nuclear facilities earlier this week did not destroy the country’s nuclear program, according to an intelligence report by the Pentagon.The stockpile of Iran’s nuclear enrichment was not destroyed and remains capable of restarting within months, at the struck sites of Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan, according to a report produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency – the intelligence arm of the Pentagon, as reported by CNN.The findings contradict President Donald Trump, who hailed the mission as having “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s enrichment facilities in a televised message.“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.The White House swiftly rejected the leaked review. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “flat-out wrong” and “a clear attempt to demean President Trump and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission”.“Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration,” Leavitt said.The intelligence report suggests that although the sites hit incurred significant damage, the strikes had only delayed Iran’s nuclear program by months.
