Early intel evaluation says Iran’s nuclear program was solely set again ‘just a few months’ : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/8275x5407+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd2%2F49%2F139f483646cfa3e37c6d7b2e875b%2F03-new-airstrike-craters-at-perimeter-installation-fordow-fuel-enrichment-facility-24jun2025-wvl.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/8275x5407+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd2%2F49%2F139f483646cfa3e37c6d7b2e875b%2F03-new-airstrike-craters-at-perimeter-installation-fordow-fuel-enrichment-facility-24jun2025-wvl.jpg" class="img" alt="A satellite image of Iran's Fordo nuclear site shows clusters of new holes likely caused by U.S. bunker buster bombs dropped over the weekend following orders by President Trump." fetchpriority="high"/> A satellite tv for pc picture of Iran's Fordo nuclear website reveals clusters of recent craters doubtless brought on by U.S. bunker buster bombs dropped over the weekend following orders by President Trump. Satellite tv for pc picture ©2025 Maxar Applied sciences disguise caption

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Satellite tv for pc picture ©2025 Maxar Applied sciences A U.S. official who was not licensed to talk publicly has confirmed early intelligence assessments by the Protection Intelligence Company saying that the huge U.S. air marketing campaign towards three Iran nuclear websites on Saturday evening didn't "obliterate" Iran's nuclear enrichment program as President Trump claimed however as an alternative set it again "just a few months."

CNN first printed information of the DIA evaluation.

The official informed NPR that army officers offered an early evaluation of the intel to pick senators — together with Virginia's Mark Warner, the main Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"I've an entire lot of questions for this administration," Warner informed All Issues Thought-about. "What are the following steps? How can we ensure that there's not Iran racing now to a grimy bomb? These are questions that we and admittedly, the American folks, deserve solutions to."

The complete Senate was slated to get a categorized briefing from the administration Tuesday afternoon, nevertheless it was cancelled and moved later within the week.

White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed the CNN report, saying on social media that it was "flat-out improper," and sustaining {that a} key nuclear facility had been destroyed. She mentioned the leak was a "clear try to demean President Trump."

The White Home didn't instantly reply to NPR's request for additional remark.

The evaluation comes lower than a day after a ceasefire declared by Trump between Israel and Iran went into impact, with each side agreeing to finish the preventing. Israel has mentioned repeatedly that its objective within the warfare had been to cease Iran's nuclear program, and forestall it from the flexibility to make a nuclear weapon — a objective long-shared by the U.S.

Talking on Air Pressure One earlier Tuesday, Trump maintained that objective had been met.

"They don't seem to be going to have enrichment they usually're not going to have a nuclear weapon," he mentioned, talking about Iran. "And I will let you know, the very last thing on their minds is nuclear weapons. They do not even need to take into consideration nuclear."

However officers inside Iran instantly contradicted that.

In an announcement on X in Farsi, Iran's Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf mentioned that Iran would "utterly disregard" Israel's calls for to cease enriching uranium, a key element to a nuclear weapon. He mentioned Iran will proceed to proceed in their very own self pursuits.

The top of Iran's Atomic Power Company Hamad Eslami additionally appeared to verify that, telling a semi-official Iranian information company that they had been nonetheless assessing the injury from Saturday evening's assaults, however had ready prematurely. "Our plan is to not enable any interruption within the manufacturing and repair course of," he mentioned.

The U.S. used huge bunker-buster bombs on Saturday to focus on three of Iran's key nuclear services, together with one referred to as Fordo, constructed deep inside a mountain.

Talking on the White Home after these strikes, Trump referred to as the strikes a "spectacular army success."

"Iran's key nuclear enrichment services have been utterly and completely obliterated," he mentioned.

However the U.S. official NPR spoke to mentioned that the intelligence evaluation concluded there had been "restricted" injury to the crucial infrastructure on the Fordo facility specifically.

Impartial specialists NPR talked to within the day after the U.S. strikes got here to related conclusions, after analyzing industrial satellite tv for pc imagery, saying that Iran's nuclear enterprise is way from destroyed.

"On the finish of the day there are some actually necessary issues that have not been hit," says Jeffrey Lewis, a professor on the Middlebury Institute of Worldwide Research at Monterey, who tracks Iran's nuclear services. "If this ends right here, it is a actually incomplete strike."

Consultants have lengthy warned that Iran's nuclear potential would not simply lie in its services, but additionally in its deep data – one thing far more tough to assault.

"The easy truth is that Israel was by no means going to have the ability to get rid of Iran's capability to construct nuclear weapons completely if Iranians select to take action," says Kenneth Pollack, Vice President for coverage on the Center East Institute. "The data is simply too widespread inside the Iranian system."