President Donald Trump’s historic precision strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites Saturday hit their targets and ‘destroyed’ and ‘badly damaged’ the facilities’ critical infrastructure — an assessment agreed upon by Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Israel and the United States.
‘Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure,’ Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei told Al Jazeera.
Israel’s Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said its assessment is that Iran’s nuclear program has been ‘significantly damaged,’ while Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission described the U.S. strikes as ‘devastating.’
‘The devastating U.S. strike on Fordo destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable,’ Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission said. ‘We assess that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other elements of Iran’s military nuclear program, has set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.’
It added: ‘The achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material.’
And as for the United States, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan ‘Razin’ Caine said that initial battle damage assessments indicate that ‘all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction.’
‘More than 125 U.S. aircraft participated in this mission, including B-2 stealth bombers, multiple flights of fourth and fifth generation fighters, dozens and dozens of air refueling tankers, a guided missile submarine, and a full array of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft, as well as hundreds of maintenance and operational professionals,’ Caine said in a press briefing.
And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that ‘given the 30,000 pounds of explosions and the capability of those munitions, it was devastation underneath Fordow.’
‘Any assessment that tells you otherwise is speculating with other motives,’ Hegseth said.
The agreement on the assessment of damage between the United States, Israel and Iran comes amid a report that cited leaked low-confidence intelligence from one intelligence agency that suggested the U.S. strikes did not destroy Iran’s nuclear sites.
A Defense Intelligence Agency source told Fox News that the ‘low confidence’ assessment was based on just ‘one day’s worth of intelligence reporting.’
More intelligence has been gathered in the days since through other sources and methods, according to the source.
‘This is a preliminary, low-confidence report and will continue to be refined as additional intelligence becomes available,’ the Defense Intelligence Agency said. ‘We are working with the appropriate authorities to investigate the unauthorized disclosure of classified information.’
And Secretary of State Marco Rubio blasted the report and said that Iran’s nuclear program ‘today looks nothing like it did just a week ago.’
‘That story is a false story, and it’s one that really shouldn’t be re-reported because it doesn’t accurately reflect what’s happening,’ Rubio said. ‘Everything underneath that mountain is in bad shape.’
Rubio also added that ‘there is no way Iran comes to the table if somehow nothing had happened.’
‘This was complete and total obliteration. They are in bad shape,’ Rubio said. ‘They are way behind today compared to where they were just seven days ago because of what President Trump did.’
Even the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi assessed that ‘very significant damage is expected to have occurred.’
‘At the Esfahan nuclear site, additional buildings were hit, with the US confirming their use of cruise missiles,’ he said, according to prepared remarks for the International Atomic Energy Agency.
‘Affected buildings include some related to the uranium conversion process,’ he said. ‘Also at this site, entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit. At the Natanz enrichment site, the Fuel Enrichment Plant was hit, with the U.S. confirming that it used ground-penetrating munitions.’
Meanwhile, Trump has been in the Netherlands at the NATO Summit, where he was met with praise from allies on his ‘decisive’ action in Iran.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised Trump as a ‘man of strength’ and a ‘man of peace’ during Wednesday’s summit.
‘I just want to recognize your decisive action on Iran,’ Rutte said at the start of his joint remarks with the president. ‘You are a man of strength, but you are also a man of peace. And the fact that you are now also successful in getting this ceasefire done between Israel and Iran — I really want to commend you for that. I think this is important for the whole world.’
The president on Wednesday declared that the United States would strike Iran again if the country attempts to rebuild its nuclear program.
