Trump pushes back after leaked report suggests Iran strikes had limited impact

Donald Trump and his senior officials postponed a disclosed intelligence report that the American strikes on Iran only retreated his nuclear program for a few months.

Speaking on Wednesday at a NATO summit in Hague, Trump said that strikes had led to “virtual obliteration” of Iranian nuclear capacities and has given its atomic program “by decades”.

Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who was also at the top, said that the Pentagon’s preliminary assessment was made with “low confidence” and that the FBI was investigating the flight.

Tuesday, Familiar sources with the initial report on the attacks on Saturday The American BBC CBS partner that Iran’s enriched uranium stock has not been eliminated.

They added that strikes had only given the country’s nuclear program for a few months – an assessment that the White House quickly described as “flat acute”.

According to the report, the strikes on the enrichment installations strongly fortified in Fordo and Natanz had sealed the entries but failed to destroy the underground structures.

Familiar officials with the assessment of the Disclosed Defense Agency warned that it was an early assessment that could change as more information becomes available on the sites.

The Defense Intelligence Agency is the own Pentagon agency that specializes in military intelligence to support operations. It collects large amounts of technical intelligence, but is distinct from other agencies such as the CIA.

The United States has 18 intelligence agencies, which sometimes produce contradictory reports according to its mission and its field of expertise. For example, the American Intelligence Community still does not agree on the origins of Covid-19.

On Wednesday, when he was sitting alongside the NATO chief, Mark Rutte, Trump initially recognized a certain uncertainty, saying that the intelligence on the attack was “very little conclusive”.

But he then went further in his evaluation, saying “it was very serious, it was [an] obliteration”.

When asked if the United States would have struck if Iran would resume its nuclear activities, Trump said: “Of course, but I’m not going to have to worry about it. It’s gone for years.”

Trump then compared strikes to the American atomic bombing of Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War.

“I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima, I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki, but it was essentially the same thing-it ended a war,” he said.

The American president was flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who both echoes his skepticism on disclosed intelligence.

Hegseth said that the flight was politically motivated and insisted that the bombs landed “precisely where they were supposed to do it”.

He added: “Any evaluation that tells you that it was something otherwise speculates with other reasons.” He characterized the flight as “completely false”.

Rubio also questioned the credibility of the disclosed report, suggesting that the content had been distorted in the media and labeling leaks as “professional stabbers”.

The preliminary assessment also indicated that some of the Iranium -enriched uranium stocks had been moved before the attack.

According to sources that have familiarized her, Iranian centrifugal remains largely “intact” with destruction limited to air buildings.

The entries of two nuclear installations were blocked and certain infrastructures have been damaged, they said, but a large part of the deeper installations survived the explosions.

In the terminology of American intelligence, “low confidence” generally indicates that information is either badly coming, fragmented or uncertain – which makes it less reliable than the assessments classified with “moderate” or “high confidence”.

Hegseth’s reference to the report being a “low confidence” suggests that it is temporary and that its results can change as more details emerge.

The United States struck three nuclear sites in Iran on Saturday – Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan – using “Bunker Buster” bombs designed to penetrate hardened underground targets.

Although the specific ammunition used in the attack have not been confirmed, the massive penetrator of 30,000 lb (14,000 kg) (MOP) was considered the only weapon capable of destroying the Iran’s underground enrichment installations.

Tehran has always said that his nuclear program was for peaceful purposes.

In the hours following the strikes on Saturday, General Dan Caine, president of the joint staff chiefs, told journalists that it would take time to assess the damage to the facilities.

But he added that “the three sites have suffered extremely serious damage and destruction”. The satellite images showed six fresh craters grouped around two entry points on the Fordo nuclear sites, as well as dust and gray debris.

It is not clear to the latest satellite images, however, how many damage the sites suffered below the surface.

Hassan Abedini, the deputy political director of the Iranian state broadcaster, said that the three sites targeted by the United States had been evacuated “some time ago”, and that Iran “had not undergone a major blow because the equipment had already been withdrawn”.

US and Israeli officials, on the other hand, praised the mission as a success.