‘Credible intelligence’ of severe damage to Iran’s nuclear sites: CIA

Washington: The CIA says there is credible intelligence that Iran’s nuclear program was severely damaged by US bombing, citing new information from reliable sources, as US President Donald Trump stepped up his attacks on reporters who have queried the extent of the destruction.

It came as the Trump administration provided slightly more details about the damage it claims was done, saying a uranium conversion facility at Isfahan in central Iran had been “wiped out”.

President Donald Trump scoffed at several questions about the efficacy of his strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.Credit: AP

Trump said the US believed Iran had been unable to move out uranium stockpiles and other equipment before the attack.

The administration also moved to dampen scepticism about the efficacy of the strikes by scheduling a news conference at the Pentagon on Thursday morning (10pm Thursday AEST) that Trump said would provide “irrefutable” evidence of the mission’s success, as well as a private briefing for members of Congress.

Trump again dismissed a preliminary report from the Defence Intelligence Agency, an arm of the Pentagon, which said it was plausible the sites hit by the US were only partially damaged.

“Since then, we’ve collected additional intelligence. We’ve also spoken to people who’ve seen the site, and the site is obliterated. And we think everything nuclear is down there, they didn’t take it out,” he told a news conference after the NATO summit in the Netherlands.

“We think we hit them so hard and so fast, they didn’t get to move [the material]. It’s very, very heavy, it’s very, very hard to move. They were way down, they were literally 30 to 35 storeys down underground.

“We think it’s covered with granite, concrete and steel.”

Norman Roule, former intelligence manager for Iran at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, told CNN it was likely the US had closely watched the facilities in the lead-up to the operation, which could give it confidence the nuclear material had not been moved somewhere else.

At the NATO summit, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a uranium conversion facility at Isfahan, which was bombarded with missiles from a US submarine, had been wiped out.

US President Donald Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth listen as Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a NATO meeting.Credit: AP

“We can’t even find … where it used to be on the map. The whole thing is just blackened out. It’s gone,” he said. “You can’t build a nuclear weapon without a conversion facility.”

Rubio said the US dropped 12 of its 13,000-kilogram bunker-busting bombs on Fordow, an Iranian nuclear site buried underneath a mountain, and two of those bombs on another site at Natanz, which was already partially destroyed by Israeli strikes.

“Everything underneath that mountain is in bad shape,” Rubio said of Fordow.

“Anything in the world can be rebuilt. But now we know where it is, and if they try to rebuild we have options there as well.”

In an interview with US news site Politico, Rubio acknowledged it was not yet possible to ascertain the extent of damage deep underground and that it was difficult to put a timeline on a full assessment.

But the government was confident “significant, substantial, lasting damage” was done to a variety of components.

“We’re just learning more about it,” he said. “The bottom line is they [Iran] are much further away from nuclear weapon today than they were before the president took this bold action.”

That was supported by a statement from CIA director John Ratcliffe, who said Iran’s nuclear program had been set back years.

“CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s nuclear program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes,” he said.

“This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.”

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also released a statement saying new intelligence confirmed the sites had been destroyed and hit out at “the propaganda media” for reporting on what she said was a portion of an “illegally leaked” document.

Uncertainty is likely to linger unless inspectors are granted access to the sites. But two analysts, David Albright and Spencer Faragasso at the Institute for Science and International Security, wrote on Wednesday the damage to Iran’s facilities from both the US and Israeli strikes was severe and significant.

The operations had in effect destroyed Iran’s centrifuge enrichment program, they said, and “it will be a long time before Iran comes anywhere near the capability it had before the attack”.

However, “there are residuals such as stocks of 60 per cent, 20 per cent, and 3-5 per cent enriched uranium and the centrifuges manufactured but not yet installed at Natanz or Fordow,” Albright and Faragasso wrote.

“These non-destroyed parts pose a threat as they can be used in the future to produce weapon-grade uranium.”

They based their analysis on high-resolution commercial satellite imagery, as well as reporting from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Israeli Defence Force.

Trump, meanwhile, has portrayed any media reports that queried the extent of the damage as unpatriotic and an insult to the pilots of the B-2 bombers that flew from Missouri, dropped the bunker-buster bombs and flew home undetected – a military operation widely regarded as an impressive success.

At NATO and on social media, he stepped up attacks on CNN and The New York Times, which have led the reporting. He targeted CNN journalist Natasha Bertrand, whom he said should be fired.

“I watched her for three days doing Fake News,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “She should be IMMEDIATELY reprimanded, and then thrown out ‘like a dog’.”

Bertrand broke the story about the preliminary Defence Intelligence Agency assessment, which was based on accounts from four – later expanded to seven – sources.

Trump, who harbours a grudge against Bertrand from previous stories, accused her of lying and “attempting to destroy our patriot pilots by making them look bad”.

CNN said the network stood “100 per cent behind Natasha Bertrand’s journalism and specifically, her and her colleagues’ reporting”.

“CNN’s reporting made clear that this was an initial finding that could change with additional intelligence. We have extensively covered President Trump’s own deep scepticism about it,” the network said.

Separately, Trump called for Israel to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or cancel his corruption trial, saying the US would save him like it did his country.

Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 in Israel on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust – all of which he denies. The trial began in 2020 and involves three criminal cases. He has pleaded not guilty.

“Bibi Netanyahu’s trial should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero, who has done so much for the State (of Israel),” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Israeli media have reported that cross-examination of Netanyahu began on June 3 in a Tel Aviv court and was expected to take about a year to complete.

with Reuters

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