{"id":154580,"date":"2025-06-24T23:28:25","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T23:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-strikes-on-iranian-nuclear-sites-not-as-effective-as-trump-administration-claims-intelligence-assessment-sky-news\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T23:28:25","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T23:28:25","slug":"us-strikes-on-iranian-nuclear-sites-not-as-effective-as-trump-administration-claims-intelligence-assessment-sky-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-strikes-on-iranian-nuclear-sites-not-as-effective-as-trump-administration-claims-intelligence-assessment-sky-news\/","title":{"rendered":"US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites not as effective as Trump administration claims – intelligence assessment – Sky News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump’s claim that Iranian nuclear sites were “totally destroyed” is in doubt, after a US intelligence report emerged appearing to contradict his assessment. Listen to the latest episode of The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim below as you scroll.
Tuesday 24 June 2025 23:30, UK
The US intel suggesting damage at Iranian nuclear sites was not what Donald Trump has claimed to be (see our 21.16 post) is likely to remain a talking point in Washington and beyond.
Our US partner network NBC News has found that initial report has been seen by some senators at a secure location, and it has been transmitted to Congress.
Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Armed Services Committee, has reviewed the document.
But he would not discuss the contents because of its classified nature.
“I’ve reviewed the classified material,” he said.
“I’m a little bit disappointed that my colleagues went and looked at it and mainly started talking about it publicly.
“That’s not we’re supposed to do with a classified report.”
In this episode, Richard and Yalda react to Donald Trump’s F-bomb earlier today.
As the shaky Israel-Iran ceasefire came into effect, he told reporters the two countries “don’t know what the f*** they’re doing”.
Yalda gives Richard her inside scoop on the call Trump had with Benjamin Netanyahu to stop him from bombing Iran.
They also ask each other what could come next – and look at what regime change would entail in Iran.
This episode contains language some may find offensive.
To get in touch or to share questions, email theworld@sky.uk<\/a> 
👉Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim on your podcast app<\/a>👈
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has denied earlier reports of a drone attack in the northwestern city of Tabriz.
Iranian media had said air defences were activated in the area, amid a fragile ceasefire with Israel.
As we reported earlier, Israel’s military said it has detected a drone heading towards its airspace (see 21.30).
We’ve got a little more to bring you now on the report suggesting US strikes did not destroy Iranian nuclear sites (see our 21.16 post).
Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, has responded to the claims, which are based on initial US intel assessments and contradict Donald Trump’s claims.
Here’s what he said:
Based on everything we have seen – and I’ve seen it all – our bombing campaign obliterated Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons.
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.
Sir Keir Starmer has been joined by his French and German counterparts in calling for Iran to “come to the negotiating table”.
Now is the “time for diplomacy”, Starmer’s office said in a statement.
The UK prime minister met with Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz at the NATO summit in The Hague earlier today.
“The leaders reflected on the volatile situation in the Middle East,” the statement added.
“Now was the time for diplomacy and for Iran to come to the negotiating table, they agreed.”
Iran has argued they were at the negotiating table with the US, before Israel’s attacks began.
Reports are coming out of both Israel and Iran, suggesting drones have been detected either heading to or in each country’s airspace.
Two Iranian news sites said air defences were activated over the northern city of Tabriz – though there was no official confirmation from authorities.
ISNA news agency then reported attack drones have been shot down in the city of Rasht, also in the north, citing the deputy provincial governor.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military has said it has intercepted two drones that were making their way to the country “most likely from Iran”.
Israel’s Kan Radio has reported the drones were likely launched in the morning, around the same time as a missile attack, they said.
Neither incident has been verified – we will bring you more as we get it.
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 our US partner network 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<\/b>
The Pentagon disputed the notion that the damage was minor, but it does not dispute 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”.
Our own science and technology editor Tom Clarke<\/b><\/a> has broken down how much damage can be seen at the sites…
While the ceasefire has put an end to attacks – at least for now – here is a reminder of where strikes had landed in both countries.
The ceasefire appears to be holding between Israel and Iran. 
And Israel’s defence minister has said it will stay that way, as long as Iran doesn’t break it.
Posting on social media after speaking with his US counterpart Pete Hegseth, he said he “emphasised that Israel will respect the ceasefire – as long as the other side does”.
We reported a similar message earlier from Iran’s president, who said Tehran won’t violate the deal unless Israel does.
Despite a flight-tracking website suggesting otherwise, reports in Iran are saying the country’s airspace has not yet been reopened.
We reported earlier that Flightradar 24 had said flights are now free to resume in Iran with prior permission.
But the Young Journalists’ Club media website cited statements by the spokesperson for the country’s roads and urban development ministry in denying that claim.
State-run Nour News has reported it will reopen tonight, but it did not give a time.
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Donald Trump’s claim that Iranian nuclear sites were “totally destroyed” is in doubt, after a US intelligence report emerged appearing to contradict his assessment. Listen to the latest episode of The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim below as you scroll.Tuesday 24 June 2025 23:30, UKThe US intel suggesting damage at Iranian nuclear sites […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":154581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}