Did US Fail In Striking Iran’s Nuclear Facilities? Here’s What Intelligence Report Says

The airstrikes launched by the US on Iran’s three key nuclear facilities did not destroy its capability but only set it back by a few months, according to a preliminary US intelligence assessment, reported Reuters. 

On Sunday, the US joined Israel in war with Iran as Trump declared that the US deployment of 30,000 bombs “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear programme. But the claim contradicted the initial assessment by one of his administration’s intelligence agencies. 

As per the report, the strikes did not eliminate Iran’s enriched uranium stocks and the country’s nuclear programme, much of which is buried deep underground, may have been set back only a month or two. Iran has maintained that its nuclear research is for civilian energy production. 

The impact of the attack limits to sealing of the entrances to two of the facilities, but did not destroy underground buildings, the Reuters report added, quoting one of the people familiar with the findings. 

Some centrifuges are still in place after the attacks, reported Washington Post. 

The White House has, however, rejected the report as “flat out wrong”. 

On Tuesday, the Trump administration told the United Nations Security Council that its strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities “degraded” the country’s nuclear programme, short of Trump’s earlier assertion that the facilities had been “obliterated”. 

Who Won The Israel-Iran War?

While the assessment report claimed otherwise, Israel and Iran sought to claim victory after 12 days of war as the US brokered a shaky ceasefire — after joining Israel in the fighting.   

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the attack on Iran removed the threat of nuclear annihilation and was determined to thwart any attempt by Tehran to revive its weapons program. 

“We have removed two immediate existential threats to us: the threat of nuclear annihilation and the threat of annihilation by 20,000 ballistic missiles,” Netanyahu said.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country successfully ended the war in what he called a “great victory”, as per the Iranian media. 

According to the official news agency IRNA, Pezeshkian told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that Iran was ready to resolve differences with the US.