{"id":154658,"date":"2025-06-25T14:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T14:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-didnt-destroy-irans-nuclear-programme-heres-what-new-intel-says-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T14:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T14:06:08","slug":"us-didnt-destroy-irans-nuclear-programme-heres-what-new-intel-says-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-didnt-destroy-irans-nuclear-programme-heres-what-new-intel-says-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"US didn\u2019t destroy Iran\u2019s nuclear programme: Here\u2019s what new intel says – Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"

US President Trump doubles down on his assertion that the Iranian nuclear programme has been set back by decades.<\/em>
The United States\u2019 strikes on three key Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday failed to destroy underground facilities, and set Tehran\u2019s nuclear programme back only by a few months, according to an assessment of a confidential American intelligence report.
The \u201ctop secret\u201d document prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) \u2013 the intelligence arm of the Pentagon \u2013 and published by major US news outlets on Tuesday is at odds with President Donald Trump\u2019s claims about the strikes. Trump has insisted that the nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan were \u201cobliterated\u201d by a combination of bunker busting and conventional bombs.<\/p>\n

Trump and his administration\u2019s senior officials are dismissing the intelligence report and calling out the reporting over the DIA\u2019s assessment as \u201cfake news\u201d.
Speaking at a NATO summit in The Hague, the US president said he believed Iran\u2019s nuclear programme was set back by decades.
So, what did the DIA assessment say about US strikes? What has Iran said about the attacks? And how does the intelligence report contrast with the Trump administration\u2019s public claims?
A preliminary report prepared by the DIA noted that rather than obliterating Iran\u2019s nuclear programme, the US bombings had only set it back by a few months.
Before Israel attacked Iran on June 13, US agencies had noted that if Iran rushed to assemble a nuclear weapon, it would take it about three months.
The DIA\u2019s five-page report now estimates this to be delayed by less than six months, reported The New York Times. As per the early findings, the US strikes blocked the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse the underground facilities.
The DIA report also reveals that the US agency believes that Iran\u2019s stockpile of enriched uranium was moved before the strikes, which destroyed little of the nuclear material.
Shortly after the US strikes on June 22, Mehdi Mohammadi, an adviser to the chairman of the Iranian parliament, claimed that the authorities had evacuated the Fordow facility in advance. \u201cIran has been expecting strikes on Fordow for several days. This nuclear facility was evacuated, no irreversible damage was sustained during today\u2019s attack,\u201d Mohammadi had said.
The US president on Wednesday said he doesn\u2019t buy Iranian claims that they moved enriched uranium out of the Fordow nuclear facility. \u201cI believe they didn\u2019t have a chance to get anything out because they acted fast,\u201d said Trump. \u201cIf it would have taken two weeks, maybe, but it\u2019s very hard to remove that kind of material\u2026 and very dangerous.
\u201cPlus, they knew we were coming,\u201d Trump added. \u201cAnd if they know we\u2019re coming, they\u2019re not going to be down there.\u201d
CNN first reported on the DIA report, quoting unnamed officials that the US strikes\u2019 effect on all three sites \u2013 Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan \u2013 was largely restricted to aboveground structures, which were severely damaged.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration told the United Nations Security Council that the US strikes had \u201cdegraded\u201d the Iranian facilities \u2013 short of Trump\u2019s earlier assertion that the attacks had \u201cobliterated\u201d the sites.
The strikes have reportedly badly damaged the electrical system at the Fordow facility. However, it was not immediately clear how long Iran could take to gain access to the underground facilities and repair these systems.
On Monday, Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, said<\/a> that while \u201cno one, including the IAEA, is in a position to have fully assessed the underground damage at Fordow\u201d, it is expected to be \u201cvery significant\u201d.
Two people familiar with the DIA\u2019s assessment told CNN that Iran\u2019s stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed and the centrifuges are largely \u201cintact\u201d.
Some analysts cautioned against drawing final conclusions. Analysts told the Reuters news agency that the extent of damage to the Fordow uranium enrichment facility would not necessarily be revealed if the assessment was based on satellite imagery.
After 10 days of fighting between Israel and Iran, the US had militarily intervened on June 22 by hitting the Iranian nuclear sites.
Fordow is a highly fortified underground uranium enrichment facility reportedly buried hundreds of metres deep in the mountains in northwestern Iran. While Natanz is Iran\u2019s largest and most central enrichment complex, containing vast halls of centrifuges, some underground, Isfahan is a major nuclear research and production centre that includes a uranium conversion facility and fuel fabrication plants.
The US forces dropped 14 30,000-pound (13,000kg) bunker-buster bombs, while Navy submarines are said to have coordinated strikes by cruise missiles at the Natanz and Isfahan sites.
The GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) \u2013 the most powerful bunker-buster bomb in the US military arsenal weighing nearly 13,000kg (30,000lb) \u2013 was used in the strike.
The US intervention was understood to be critical for the Israeli campaign against Iranian nuclear facilities, especially Fordow, due to its depth that kept it out of reach for the Israeli military.
In March this year, the US spy chief Tulsi Gabbard had informed Congress that there was no evidence Iran was building a nuclear weapon, and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had not authorised the nuclear weapons programme that he had earlier suspended in 2003.
On June 17, as Israel and Iran continued to trade ballistic missiles, Trump was returning to Washington from the G7 summit in Canada, when he snubbed his own administration, including the spy chief Gabbard, saying she and the intel agencies had gotten it \u201cwrong\u201d.
He claimed that Iran was \u201cvery close\u201d to having a nuclear weapon. On June 22, the US struck Iranian nuclear facilities. \u201cThe strikes were a spectacular military success,\u201d Trump said in a televised address. \u201cIran\u2019s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.\u201d
The next day, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, \u201cThe damage to the Nuclear sites in Iran is said to be \u2018monumental.\u2019 The hits were hard and accurate. Great skill was shown by our military. Thank you!\u201d
On Wednesday, at the NATO summit, he reiterated his stance. \u201cThe last thing they [Iran] want to do is enrich anything right now\u2026 They\u2019re not going to have a bomb and they\u2019re not going to enrich,\u201d he said at The Hague.
Top officials from his administration, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have repeated the obliteration claims since then.
\u201cBased on everything we have seen \u2013 and I\u2019ve seen it all \u2013 our bombing campaign obliterated Iran\u2019s ability to create nuclear weapons,\u201d Hegseth said in a statement provided to Reuters.
\u201cOur massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target \u2013 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.\u201d
Trump spent a good amount of time letting off steam on his Truth Social platform after the DIA report dropped.
\u201cTHE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED! BOTH THE TIMES AND CNN ARE GETTING SLAMMED BY THE PUBLIC!\u201d Trump wrote in all-caps, referring to the reporting by The New York Times and CNN.
\u201cFAKE NEWS CNN, TOGETHER WITH THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES, HAVE TEAMED UP IN AN ATTEMPT TO DEMEAN ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MILITARY STRIKES IN HISTORY,\u201d Trump said in a post.
The US president also posted a series of apparently bizarre videos, including one of B-2 bombers taking off to a \u201cbomb Iran\u201d song in the background.
Trump is currently in the Netherlands, attending this week\u2019s NATO summit, and reiterated to reporters that the damage from the strikes was significant. \u201cI think it\u2019s been completely demolished,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cThose pilots hit their targets. Those targets were obliterated, and the pilots should be given credit.
\u201cThat place is under rock. That place is demolished,\u201d Trump responded to a question on the possibility of Iran rebuilding its nuclear program.
He took further shots at CNN, saying: \u201cThese cable networks are real losers. You\u2019re gutless losers. I say that to CNN because I watch it \u2013 I have no choice. I got to watch it. It\u2019s all garbage. It\u2019s all fake news.\u201d
He said the intelligence following the strikes in Iran was \u201cinconclusive\u201d. \u201cThe intelligence says we don\u2019t know. It could\u2019ve been very severe. That\u2019s what the intelligence suggests.\u201d
\u201cIt was very severe. There was obliteration,\u201d he reiterated on Wednesday.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, called the DIA assessment \u201cflat-out wrong\u201d and leaked to the press \u201cby an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community\u201d.
\u201cThe 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\u2019s nuclear program,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cEveryone knows what happens when you drop 14 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: Total obliteration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow Al Jazeera English:<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US President Trump doubles down on his assertion that the Iranian nuclear programme has been set back by decades.The United States\u2019 strikes on three key Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday failed to destroy underground facilities, and set Tehran\u2019s nuclear programme back only by a few months, according to an assessment of a confidential American intelligence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":154659,"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":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154658","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=154658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}