President Donald Trump Saturday insisted that the United States military strikes “completely destroyed” three nuclear sites in Iran through last month’s Operation Midnight Hammer, speaking out after an assessment was released this week showing that just one of the three facilities was wiped out.
“All three nuclear sites in Iran were completely destroyed and/or OBLITERATED,” Trump posted on his Truth Social page. “It would take years to bring them back into service and, if Iran wanted to do so, they would be much better off starting anew, in three different locations, prior to those sites being obliterated, should they decide to do so.”
On Thursday, however, multiple news outlets reported on a new intelligence assessment indicating that the Fordow nuclear enrichment site was mostly destroyed by U.S. bombs on June 21. The remaining sites, at Natanz and Isfahan, were not extensively damaged, according to the report, which stated that if Iran wishes, it could resume nuclear enrichment in the upcoming months.
NBC News, quoting several current and former U.S. officials, further reported that the assessment was outlined with lawmakers, Defense Department officials, and U.S. allies in recent days.
The network also reported that U.S. Central Command had briefed Trump on a larger plan for striking Iran that would have involved hitting three more nuclear sites, but the operation would have stretched out for several weeks.
It was rejected, however, because it did not match his foreign policy call against digging deeper into foreign conflicts and because it brought the possibilities of much higher casualties on both sides, according to NBC’s sources.
“We were willing to go all the way in our options, but the president did not want to,” a source with knowledge of the plan commented.
The Defense Department and the White House, in pushing back against the latest assessment, denied the reports about the latest assessment as “fake news.”
“The credibility of the Fake News Media is similar to that of the current state of the Iranian nuclear facilities: destroyed, in the dirt, and will take years to recover,” DOD chief spokesman Sean Parnell said through a statement, reported The Hill.
“President Trump was clear and the American people understand: Iran’s nuclear facilities in Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz were completely and totally obliterated,” he continued. “There is no doubt about that.