The bombings on IR will be ordered by Donald Trump last Saturday did not achieve the objectives pursued or what the US president himself and his team later said: they did not destroy the fundamental components of the country's nuclear program and probably only delayed it a few months, according to a preliminary evaluation of American intelligence services advanced by the CNN.
The evaluation was carried out by the Defense Intelligence Agency (day), the branch of Pentagon's research services and is based on an evaluation of the damage caused by the bombing and carried out by the central command of the United States.
The analysis is still ongoing and could change as more information is available. However, the first conclusions contradict the repeated statements of President Donald Trump that the attacks “destroyed completely and totally” Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities.
The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegesh, also said Sunday that Iran's nuclear ambitions had “been destroyed.”
Two of the people consulted by the CNN and knowledgeable of the evaluation said that Iran's enriched uranium reserves were not destroyed. One of the people said the centrifugators are largely “intact.”
“Thus, the evaluation (of the day) is that the United States has delayed a few months, at most,” added the source.
The White House expressed its rejection of the report. Thus, the White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told the CNN: “This supposed evaluation is totally wrong and was classified as 'high secret', but it was facilitated to the CNN by an anonymous leaker of low level of the intelligence community. The filtration of this alleged evaluation is a clear attempt to belittle the President Trump and discredit the brave drivers. Mission perfectly executed to destroy Iran's nuclear program.
High controls of the US army have affirmed, in turn, that the operation was developed as planned and that it was a “resounding success.”
It is still soon for the United States to have a complete vision of the impact of attacks, and none of the sources has described the CNN how the evaluation of the day is compared with the opinion of other agencies of the intelligence community. The United States continues to collect information while evaluating damage.
Israel had been carrying out attacks against Iranian nuclear facilities during the days prior to US military operation, but said he needed the 13.6 tons of the US B-2 tons to finish the work.
Although the B-2 launched more than a dozen bombs on two of the nuclear facilities, the fuel enrichment plant in Fordo and Natanz's enrichment complex, the pumps did not completely eliminate centrifuging and highly enriched uranium of the locations, according to people familiar with the evaluation they have affirmed to the CNN.
On the other hand, the impact on the three locations – Ford, Natanz and Isfahán – was largely limited to the soil structures, which suffered serious damage, according to the sources. This includes the electrical infrastructure of the site and some of the facilities on the ground used to convert the uranium into metal for the manufacture of pumps.
The Secretary of the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth, also declared the CNN: “Based on everything we have seen – and I have seen everything – our bombing campaign has destroyed Iran's ability to manufacture nuclear weapons. The impact of those bombs is buried under a mountain of debris in Iran, so anyone who says that the bombs were not devastating is only trying to undermine the president and the success of the president mission”.
“I think it has been completely destroyed,” Trump said, adding: “Those pilots achieved their objectives. Those objectives were destroyed, and you have to give credit to the pilots.” When asked about the possibility that they will rebuild their nuclear program, Trump replied: “That place is under the rubble. That place is destroyed.”
While Trump and Hegesh have been optimistic about the success of the attacks, the president of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Caine, said Sunday that, although the evaluation of the damage was still ongoing, it would be “too soon” to comment if they will still retain any nuclear capacity.
The US authorities believe that Iran also maintains secret nuclear facilities that were not subject to the attack and remain operational, according to two sources familiar with the matter consulted by the CNN.
