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, prime aides and early intelligence studies paint contrasting footage of the extent of the injury 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 mentioned he ordered the assault on June 21 to strike a uranium enrichment website positioned in 300 ft deep in a mountain in Fordo in northwestern Iran, an uranium enrichment website in Natanz and the Isfahan Nuclear Know-how Middle following studies that Iranian officers didn’t adjust to worldwide nuclear laws.

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

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

Officers label mission a hit, however present few particulars to start out

On Sunday morning, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed Trump’s assertion from Saturday night time, 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, nonetheless, declined to go as far, saying it might take extra time to evaluate the extent of the injury achieved.

Hegseth acknowledged that injury 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 suggests particularly the first goal right here, we consider we achieved destruction of capabilities there,” he mentioned.

Pentagon preliminary injury report leaks

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

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

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

As a substitute, he insisted that “very vital, substantial injury was achieved” to key elements of Iran’s nuclear program, “and we’re simply studying extra about it.”

On the similar time, Rubio supplied extra particulars in regards to 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 specialists mentioned, 200 to 300 ft inside a mountain.

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

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

The director common of the U.N.’s nuclear oversight company, the Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company, Rafael Grossi, mentioned 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, possibly. But it surely’s very arduous to take away that form of materials, very arduous 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 mentioned Wednesday.

Trump reiterated that the websites and the uranium had been buried below rubble and inaccessible, including that vans 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 building autos getting used to cowl the air flow shaft openings with protecting concrete.

In keeping with the 2 folks acquainted with the DIA’s labeled report, the bombing sealed off the entrances to 2 of the three nuclear websites focused within the assault however many of the injury was achieved to buildings above floor, leaving the decrease buildings intact.

The evaluation additionally discovered that a minimum of some enriched uranium remained – presumably moved from the nuclear websites forward of the blasts.

The subsequent 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 through the briefing if he may very well be extra definitive about whether or not the enriched uranium was moved earlier than the assault, Hegseth mentioned the Pentagon was “watching each side.”

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

Facility destruction downplayed by officers, ceasefire emphasised

Hegseth additionally highlighted what gave the impression to be a special purpose of the mission, arguing the assault had succeeded as a result of it led to stopping the combating between Iran and Israel — slightly than the services’ destruction as a result of it destroyed Iran’s nuclear program.

“We bought that peace, that ceasefire, that choice due to power, due to [Trump’s] willingness to make use of American army would possibly that nobody else on the planet can do with the form of planners and operators that the chairman simply laid out,” he mentioned.

Then, on Friday, Trump echoed that sentiment.

“They put out that fireside as soon as that occurred, as soon as these bombs bought dropped out, that warfare was over,” he mentioned.

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

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

Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian international minister mentioned on Iranian State TV Thursday, nonetheless, the services 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 labeled briefing on the strikes, Republican lawmakers acknowledged that the U.S. strikes might not have destroyed Iran’s cache of enriched uranium. However they mentioned that wasn’t a part of the mission.

“The aim of the mission was to remove sure specific facets 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., informed CNN.

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