US intelligence report challenges Trump’s claim of “total obliteration” of Iran’s nukes

A classified US intelligence assessment has found that recent American airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities significantly damaged the program but fell short of completely destroying it, contradicting public claims by President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to two individuals familiar with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report, the strikes at the Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan sites caused major disruption but did not result in total obliteration. “The facilities were not totally destroyed,” said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

The assessment, issued on June 23, suggests Iran’s nuclear program has been set back by several months, not years. Crucially, it found that some highly enriched uranium may have been moved before the attack and survived, and that Iran’s centrifuges — necessary for enriching uranium to weapons-grade levels — remain largely intact.

At the deeply buried Fordo uranium enrichment plant, where US B-2 stealth bombers dropped several 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, the entrance collapsed and infrastructure was damaged, but the underground infrastructure was not destroyed, the assessment found. The people said that intelligence officials had warned of such an outcome in previous assessments ahead of the strike on Fordo.

The White House strongly pushed back on the DIA assessment, calling it “flat-out wrong.”

“The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.”

Trump echoed that sentiment, stating the sites were “totally destroyed” and that Iran would never rebuild its nuclear program. Netanyahu added in a televised statement, “We brought to ruin Iran’s nuclear program.”

Despite the claims, satellite imagery shows trucks and bulldozers at Fordo days before the strikes, possibly used to move materials or reinforce entrances. Maxar Technologies said, “The tunnel entrances into the underground complex had been sealed off with dirt prior to the US airstrikes.”

Experts remain divided. “It is plausible that Iran moved the material enriched to 60 per cent out of Fordo and loaded it on a truck,” said Eric Brewer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

Kelsey Davenport of the Arms Control Association warned, “If Iran had already diverted its centrifuges,” it can “build a covert enrichment facility... and quickly enrich to weapons grade levels.”

By Vafa Guliyeva