President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that the U.S. military strikes against Iran’s three nuclear facilities resulted in “total obliteration” and set the country’s nuclear program back by “decades.”
The president was asked by reporters at the NATO summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday regarding a Pentagon report leaked to the media, which suggested that the strikes by the U.S. military and Israel Defense Forces may have only delayed Iran’s nuclear program by a few months. In response, Trump said, “I believe it was total obliteration.”
According to ABC 6, two people familiar with the Pentagon’s report told the outlet that the report suggested the U.S. military’s strikes only inflicted limited damage on Iran’s nuclear facilities and that Iran relocated some of its uranium prior to the strikes.
However, Trump told reporters Wednesday, “I believe they didn’t have a chance to get anything out, because we acted fast. If it would have taken two weeks, maybe. But it’s very hard to remove that kind of material, very hard and very dangerous for them to remove it. Plus, they knew we were coming, and if they know we’re coming, they’re not going to be down there.”
Trump indicated on Wednesday that the U.S. military strikes had set Iran’s nuclear program back by “basically decades” and suggested that he believed Iran would not try to rebuild the program.
“I think they’ve had it,” Trump said. “I mean, they just went through hell.”
“It’s gone for years, years, very tough to rebuild, because the whole thing is collapsed. In other words, inside, it’s all collapsed,” Trump added. “Nobody can get in to see it, because it’s collapsed.”
According to ABC 6, in response to questions regarding the early U.S. intelligence reports on Wednesday, Trump emphasized that the reports were “very inconclusive.”
“The intelligence says we don’t know, it could have been very severe, that’s what the intelligence says. So I guess that’s correct, but I think we can take the ‘we don’t know,'” Trump told reporters. “It was very severe. It was obliteration.”
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According to Fox News, the Israel Atomic Energy Commission provided an assessment on Wednesday, noting that Iran’s nuclear program had been set back by “many years.”
A statement from the commission that was provided by the White House said, “The devastating U.S. strike on Fordow destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable.”
“We assess that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other elements of Iran’s military nuclear program, has set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years,” the Israel Atomic Energy Commission added. “This achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material.”
