Despite Trump’s claims, Tehran’s nuclear programme is likely to have been set back only by months, according to a US news report
An early intelligence assessment indicated that the US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend did not destroy the core components of Tehran’s nuclear programme and probably only set it back by months, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing three people briefed on it.
After days of deliberation, US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites on Saturday. US President Donald Trump said Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities had been completely and “totally obliterated”, an assertion he has since repeated.
While over a dozen bombs were dropped on two of the nuclear facilities, the Fordow Fuel Enrichment plant and the Natanz Enrichment Complex, they did not fully eliminate the sites’ centrifuges and highly enriched uranium, CNN reported, citing people familiar with the early assessment.
Citing two people familiar with the assessment, CNN reported that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium had not been destroyed.
