Israeli Intelligence Report Claims U.S. Strikes Set Iran’s Nuclear Program Back by ‘Many Years’
(AP Photo)
Israel’s top nuclear authority backed President Donald Trump’s assessment Wednesday that U.S. strikes on Iranian enrichment facilities have inflicted long-term damage on the country’s nuclear program, setting it back by “many years.”
In a striking statement released by the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) and shared by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, officials say the assault rendered Iran’s heavily fortified Fordow enrichment facility “inoperable.” The underground site, believed to be key to any future Iranian bid for nuclear weapons, was described as having had its “critical infrastructure” destroyed in what Israel called a “devastating” blow.
“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,” the commission declared. It added that the “achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material.”
The announcement comes after CNN and The New York Times reported on a leaked early U.S. intelligence assessment suggesting the damage was far less extensive. CNN quoted one senior official who claimed that Iran’s program may only have been delayed by “a few months, tops.”
Trump, speaking from the NATO summit in The Hague just hours before the Israeli findings were published, forcefully dismissed the leaked report as “fake news” and predicted that the Israeli analysis would soon back his claim that the Fordo facility had been “obliterated.”
Both Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, flanking the president, denounced the leak as a politically motivated attempt to undermine the president’s actions.
