US President Donald Trump has claimed that recent military strikes on Iran completely destroyed the country’s nuclear programme. Speaking at a NATO summit in the Netherlands, he said the attacks had wiped out Iran’s nuclear capabilities and set its atomic efforts back by decades.
However, a report from the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) suggests otherwise. According to the agency, key Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan were damaged in the strikes but not destroyed. The report indicates that these sites could be repaired and become operational again.
President Trump dismissed the DIA’s findings and compared the US strikes to the World War II bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which led to Japan’s surrender. He said the recent actions had helped end the conflict between Iran and Israel, claiming that if the US had not acted, the fighting would still be ongoing.
Trump criticised the DIA and said that a full assessment of the damage could only be made once Israel completed its analysis. He also accused major US media outlets of spreading false information about the strike’s effectiveness. In a post on his social media platform, he stated that the media were trying to downplay what he described as one of the most successful military operations in history.
Meanwhile, Dan Caine, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that while early assessments show serious damage to the Iranian facilities, it will take time to fully understand the impact.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also rejected the intelligence report, calling it incorrect and an attempt to discredit President Trump. She insisted that the use of multiple heavy bombs on the nuclear sites led to complete destruction.
The situation has raised questions about the accuracy of information being shared by US officials and how it could affect international relations moving forward.