President Trump is doubling down on the administration’s declare that U.S. military strikes “fully destroyed” Iran’s three nuclear websites final month, pushing again towards a brand new evaluation reportedly displaying that solely one of many three amenities was wrecked.
“All three nuclear websites in Iran had been fully destroyed and/or OBLITERATED. It will take years to convey them again into service and, if Iran needed to take action, they’d be a lot better off beginning anew, in three completely different places, previous to these websites being obliterated, ought to they resolve to take action,” Trump mentioned in a Saturday morning submit on Reality Social.
A brand new intelligence evaluation, reported by a number of information shops on Thursday, signifies that Iran’s nuclear enrichment web site in Fordow was principally destroyed through the June 21 strikes, however the two different principal websites — Natanz and Isfahan — weren’t and will probably resume enriching uranium if Tehran greenlights it.
The Protection Division, together with the White Home, pushed back on the evaluation, contending that the airstrikes, carried out by B-2 bombers and submarines firing Tomahawk cruise missiles, destroyed all three amenities.
“The credibility of the Faux Information Media is just like that of the present state of the Iranian nuclear amenities: destroyed, within the dust, and can take years to recuperate,” the division’s chief spokesman Sean Parnell mentioned in a press release. “President Trump was clear and the American individuals perceive: Iran’s nuclear amenities in Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz had been fully and completely obliterated.”
“There isn’t a doubt about that,” he added.
Parnell told reporters earlier this month that the Protection Division’s intelligence assessments indicated that Iran’s nuclear program was degraded by “one to 2 years.”
The Trump administration strongly criticized information shops for reporting in June that an early, low-confidence report, compiled shortly after the U.S. strikes by the Protection Intelligence Company, mentioned that navy strikes on the nuclear amenities solely set Iran’s nuclear program again by months.
The U.S. navy mission, known as Operation Midnight Hammer, was launched on June 21, simply days after Israel and Iran started buying and selling blows.
Trump said in late June that he would contemplate bombing Iran’s nuclear websites once more if U.S. intelligence raised extra issues about Tehran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities.