CIA Director John Ratcliffe claimed Iran’s nuclear program was “severely damaged” by recent U.S. airstrikes after reports from CNN and The New York Times suggested that the targeted hits weren’t as successful as President Donald Trump has maintained.
Ratcliffe pointed to what he described as a “body of credible intelligence,” which showed that “several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.”
His statement comes as the White House has disputed media reports, including one from CNN, which cited an assessment by the Pentagon’s intelligence arm, and which stated that the airstrikes had “likely only set [Iran’s nuclear program] back by months.”
The CNN report also noted that the strikes failed to “destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program,” while another report from the Times, which referred to the same intelligence assessment, said that they did not “collapse … underground buildings” which are a key part of the nuclear sites.
The Pentagon intelligence assessment reportedly noted that the sites had suffered “moderate to severe damage,” and was a preliminary review. A final conclusion about the battle damage assessment is still to come, General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Sunday.
