Cnn
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THE US military sheet out of three of Iranian nuclear installations Last weekend, did not destroy the fundamental components of the country’s nuclear program and probably only heard it per month, according to an early evaluation of American intelligence which was described by seven informed people.
The evaluation, which has not been reported before, was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon intelligence branch. It is based on an evaluation of the battle damage led by the American central command in the aftermath of the American strikes, according to one of the sources.
Analysis of damage to sites and the impact of Iran’s nuclear ambitions are underway and could change as more intelligence becomes available. But the first conclusions are in contradiction with the repeated affirmations of President Donald Trump according to which the “completely and completely erased” strikes of the nuclear enrichment installations of Iran. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth also said on Sunday that Iran’s nuclear ambitions “had been erased.”
Two of the people familiar with the evaluation said that the Uranium stock enriched by Iran was not destroyed. One of the people said centrifugal was largely “intact”. Another source said that intelligence assessed enriched uranium had been removed from sites before the American strikes.
“So the evaluation (DIA) is that the United States may have rejected them a few months, above,” added this person.
The White House recognized the existence of the evaluation, but declared in disagreement with it.
The white house press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN in a press release: “This alleged evaluation is perfectly wrong and was classified as a top secret ”, but has always been disclosed to CNN by an anonymous and low level loser in the intelligence community. The leak of this alleged evaluation is a clear attempt to lower President Trump, and to discredit the brave hunter program. Know what is happening when you drop fourteen bombs of 30,000 pounds perfectly on their targets: total obliteration. »»
Trump, who is in the Netherlands at the top of this week’s NATO, rejected CNN’s report in a social article of truth. “One of the most successful military strikes in history,” wrote Trump in the post All-Caps adding: “Nuclear sites in Iran are completely destroyed!”
Hegseth, who is also at the top of NATO, said on Wednesday that evaluation was “a top secret report; It was preliminary; It was a low confidence ”; Adding that there were political motivations behind the flight and that an FBI investigation was underway to identify the flight.
The American army said that the operation was planned as planned and that it was “overwhelming success”.
It is still early for the United States to have a complete image of the impact of strikes, and none of the sources described how DIA evaluation compared to the vision of other intelligence community agencies. The United States continues to recover information, including inside Iran when it assess the damage.
Israel had carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear installations for days preceding the US military operation, but said it needed 30,000 pounds of 30,000 pounds bunker bombs To finish the work. While the American B-2 bombers have lost more than a dozen bombs out of two of the nuclear installations, the Fordwow Fuel enrichment plant and the Natanz enrichment complex, the bombs did not fully eliminate centrifugal from the sites and highly enriched uranium, depending on the familiar with the evaluation.
Instead, the impact on the three sites – Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan – was largely limited to higher structures, which have been seriously damaged, the sources said. This includes the electrical infrastructure of the sites and some of the upper installations used to transform uranium into metal for the manufacture of bombs.
The Israeli assessment of the impact of American strikes has also found less damage on the Fordow than expected. However, Israeli officials believe that the combination of American and Israeli military action on several nuclear sites retains the two -year Iranian nuclear program, assuming that they are able to rebuild it without hindrance, which Israel would not authorize. But Israel had also publicly declared before the US military operation that the Iranian program had been two years behind.
Hegseth also told CNN: “Based on everything we have seen – and I saw everything – our bombing campaign has erased Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons. Our massive bombs struck exactly the right place with each target and worked perfectly. The impact of these bombs is buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran; So whoever says that the bombs are not devastated.
Tuesday morning, Trump repeated his belief that the damage to the strikes were important.
“I think it was completely demolished,” he said, adding: “These pilots have reached their targets. These targets have been erased, and the pilots should be created.”
Asked about the possibility that Iran reconstructs its nuclear program, Trump replied: “This place is under rock. This place is demolished. ”
Trump was unleashed in the media on Wednesday, including CNN, although he maintained strikes to hand over Iran’s nuclear ambitions. However, the American president acknowledged that the information was “not conclusive” and preliminary, and Israel suggested that Israel would provide a more complete image of its own conclusions.
“Intelligence was not very little conclusive,” Trump told the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague. “Intelligence says we don’t know. It could have been very serious. ”
While Trump and Hegseth were optimistic about the success of strikes, the president of the joint staff chiefs Dan Caine said on Sunday that if the evaluation of the damage was still underway, it would be “too early” to say if Iran still retains certain nuclear capacities.
Republican representative Michael McCaul, the emeritus president of the Chamber’s foreign affairs committee, did not echo Trump’s claims that the Iranian program was “erased” when he was in a hurry by CNN on Tuesday.
“I have been informed of this plan in the past, and it has never been supposed to completely destroy nuclear installations, but rather cause significant damage,” McCaul told CNN, referring to US military plans to hit Iranian nuclear installations. “But it was always known to be a temporary setback.”
Jeffrey Lewis, expert in arms and professor at the Institute of International Studies in Middlebury who closely examined the commercial satellite imagery of strike sites, agreed that attacks did not seem to have ended the Iranian nuclear program.
“The ceasefire came without Israel or the United States able to destroy several key underground nuclear installations, including near Natanz, Isfahan and Parchin,” said Lewis, referring to the ceasefire between Israel and Iran that Trump announced on Monday. Parchin is a separate nuclear complex near Tehran.
“These installations could serve as the basis for the rapid reconstruction of the Iranian nuclear program.”
Earlier Tuesday, classified briefs for the room and the Senate on the operation were canceled.
The All-Senate briefing was transferred to Thursday, according to two sources familiar with the issue.
Two separate familiar sources have told CNN that the briefing for all chamber legislators had also been postponed. He was not immediately clear why he was delayed or when he was reprogrammed.
Democratic representative Pat Ryan from New York said on X on Tuesday that “Trump has just canceled a classified room on the Iranian strikes without explanation. His team knows that they cannot save their boastful and BS. »»
As CNN has reported, there have been questions for a long time on the question of whether the American bunker -business bombs, called massive ammunition penetrators, could fully destroy the highly fortified nuclear sites of Iran which are buried deeply underground – in particular at Fordow and Isfahan, the largest nuclear research complex in Iran.
In particular, the United States has struck Isfahan with tomahawk missiles launched from a submarine instead of a bunker-business bomb. Indeed, there was an understanding that the bomb probably did not successfully penetrate the lower levels of Isfahan, which are buried even deeper than Fordow, said one of the sources.
US officials believe that Iran also maintains secret nuclear installations that were not targeted in the strike and remain operational, according to two familiar sources with the issue.
This story has been updated with additional details.
Kaitlan Collins de CNN, Jim Sciutto, Kevin Liptak, Lauren Fox, Annie Grayer and DJ Judd contributed to the reports.