The Iranian foreign ministry admitted that their nuclear facilities were “badly damaged” by U.S. strikes over the weekend after reports surfaced about a low-confidence U.S. intelligence assessment suggesting otherwise.
Numerous outlets reported Wednesday on an early intelligence assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency suggesting the U.S. strikes only set Iran’s nuclear program back a few months. The White House strongly disputed the intelligence assessment and criticized the leakers within the intelligence apparatus.
“This alleged ‘assessment’ is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community. 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.
“Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.”
Secretary of State Rubio also cast doubt on the intelligence assessment during a panel discussion at the NATO Summit at The Hague on Wednesday, arguing that anti-Trump elements within the intelligence community had manipulated media outlets into reporting unfavorably on the operation.
“There’s no way Iran comes to the table if somehow nothing happened. This was complete and total obliteration. They are way behind today compare to where they were just seven days ago,” Rubio said.
Speaking alongside Rubio at the NATO Summit, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the FBI is investigating the intelligence leak and how it became public.
The U.S. launched strikes Saturday on the Iranian nuclear facilities in Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan in order to prevent the Iranian regime for progressing further toward nuclear breakout. The strikes came after the Israelis launched targeted strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities and top nuclear scientists. Israel also killed several top Iranian military commanders in its attack on Iran. The two countries continued to exchange strikes afterwards as Trump weighed U.S. involvement.
President Trump has repeatedly asserted that the U.S. “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrich facilities with the strikes. Also at the NATO summit, Trump said Israel sent agents to the nuclear facilities to confirm their destruction.
“Israel is doing a report on it now, I understand, and I was told that they said it was total obliteration,” Trump told reporters. He also compared the nuclear strikes to the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which resulted in Japanese surrender and the end of World War II in 1945.
Trump announced a cease-fire between Israel and Iran Monday after the Iranians retaliated against the U.S. strikes with a missile attack on an American air base in Qatar. The Iranian attack did not cause any damage or casualties, and Trump said the U.S. was notified about it early.
After Trump’s announcement, the Iranians launched missile strikes on Israel right before the cease-fire was set to go into effect. Trump voiced frustration with Israel and Iran Tuesday, and called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent Israel from launching retaliatory strikes against Iran and violating the cease-fire. The Israelis had accused Iran of violating the cease-fire and were prepared to respond accordingly. For its part, Iran denied violating the deal.