A week of shifting descriptions of Iran attack spark ongoing questions about extent of damage and goals

Every week after President Donald Trump ordered a U.S. attack on three Iranian nuclear sites, the reasons and descriptions of what occurred voiced by him, high aides and early intelligence reviews paint contrasting photos of the extent of the harm to Iran’s nuclear program.

Whereas the president and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth repeatedly claimed that Iran’s nuclear program has been “obliterated,” preliminary assessments — together with from the Pentagon’s personal intelligence wing — painted an evolving image because the week went on.

Trump stated he ordered the assault on June 21 to strike a uranium enrichment web site situated in 300 ft deep in a mountain in Fordo in northwestern Iran, an uranium enrichment web site in Natanz and the Isfahan Nuclear Know-how Heart following reviews that Iranian officers did not adjust to worldwide nuclear rules.

And as these early harm assessments forged doubt on the extent to which Iran nuclear program was crippled, a number of of Trump’s high aides and allied lawmakers additionally appeared to reduce the said targets of the assault.

Listed here are a number of the accounts and characterizations over the past week.

Officers label mission successful, however present few particulars to begin

On Sunday morning, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed Trump’s assertion from Saturday evening, simply after the strikes, that the websites had been “obliterated.”

“It was clear we devastated the Iranian nuclear program,” he added.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, nevertheless, declined to go as far, saying it could take extra time to evaluate the extent of the harm completed.

Hegseth acknowledged that harm evaluation was ongoing however caught by the outline he and Trump had been utilizing.

“All of our precision munitions struck the place we wished them to strike and had the specified impact, which implies particularly the first goal right here, we imagine we achieved destruction of capabilities there,” he stated.

Pentagon preliminary harm report leaks

Officers and inspectors from outdoors Iran haven’t been in a position to achieve direct entry to the bombed websites to make a first-hand evaluation.

Trump officers had a extra nuanced take after information reviews surfaced Tuesday about an preliminary Protection Intelligence Company evaluation that stated the assault set again Iran’s nuclear program solely by months.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the leaks of the navy’s report however didn’t go so far as to say that the websites had been obliterated.

As a substitute, he insisted that “very important, substantial harm was completed” to key parts of Iran’s nuclear program, “and we’re simply studying extra about it.”

On the identical time, Rubio offered extra particulars concerning the assault, together with that the bunker-buster bombs had been dropped on air flow shafts main deep inside Fordo’s closely fortified facility — buried, officers and consultants stated, 200 to 300 ft inside a mountain.

He in the end acknowledged that it was troublesome to get a learn on harm inflicted to Fordo at this level, however asserted “the underside line is actual harm was completed.”

That very same day, Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard claimed in an announcement that the three amenities had been destroyed.

The director common of the U.N.’s nuclear oversight company, the Worldwide Atomic Power Company, Rafael Grossi, stated Wednesday that he believed a few of Iran’s enriched uranium had been moved from the websites earlier than the assaults.

Trump refuted that evaluation.

“It will have taken two weeks, perhaps. However it’s very onerous to take away that type of materials, very onerous and really harmful. Plus, they knew we had been coming, and in the event that they know we’re coming, they are not going to be down there,” he stated Wednesday.

Trump reiterated that the websites and the uranium had been buried beneath rubble and inaccessible, including that vehicles seen in satellite tv for pc pictures on the plant earlier than the assault — which some speculated might have been used to maneuver the nuclear materials — had been development autos getting used to cowl the air flow shaft openings with protecting concrete.

In response to the 2 folks acquainted with the DIA’s categorized report, the bombing sealed off the entrances to 2 of the three nuclear websites focused within the assault however many of the harm was completed to constructions above floor, leaving the decrease constructions intact.

The evaluation additionally discovered that no less than some enriched uranium remained – probably moved from the nuclear websites forward of the blasts.

The following day, on Thursday, Hegseth held a information convention the place he slammed the information media over reporting however didn’t make the identical evaluation on the nuclear supplies.

Requested twice in the course of the briefing if he could possibly be extra definitive about whether or not the enriched uranium was moved earlier than the assault, Hegseth stated the Pentagon was “watching each facet.”

At that very same Thursday briefing, Caine famous it’s not his job to evaluate the harm, saying, “We don’t grade our personal homework.”

Facility destruction downplayed by officers, ceasefire emphasised

Hegseth additionally highlighted what seemed to be a unique purpose of the mission, arguing the assault had succeeded as a result of it led to stopping the combating between Iran and Israel — fairly than the amenities’ destruction as a result of it destroyed Iran’s nuclear program.

“We acquired that peace, that ceasefire, that choice due to power, due to [Trump’s] willingness to make use of American navy may that nobody else on the planet can do with the type of planners and operators that the chairman simply laid out,” he stated.

Then, on Friday, Trump echoed that sentiment.

“They put out that fireside as soon as that occurred, as soon as these bombs acquired dropped out, that conflict was over,” he stated.

Nonetheless, the president claimed once more that the websites had been obliterated throughout a information convention.

“We completed them off,” he stated, including, “I do not imagine that they are going to return into nuclear anytime quickly.”

Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian overseas minister stated on Iranian State TV Thursday, nevertheless, the amenities weren’t destroyed and his nation could have leverage in negotiations.

The destiny of the enriched uranium

On Capitol Hill on Thursday, after administration officers gave lawmakers a categorized briefing on the strikes, Republican lawmakers acknowledged that the U.S. strikes could not have destroyed Iran’s cache of enriched uranium. However they stated that wasn’t a part of the mission.

“The aim of the mission was to eradicate sure specific points of their nuclear program. These had been eradicated. To do away with the nuclear materials was not a part of the mission,” Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., instructed CNN.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., stated the “program was obliterated at these three websites,” however added, “I do not know the place the 900 kilos of extremely enriched uranium exists. However it wasn’t a part of the targets there.”