Pentagon intelligence assessments suggest that Iran’s nuclear program was set back by “one to two years” by U.S. strikes on the regime’s key nuclear facilities, Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Sean Parnell told reporters Wednesday.
The strikes on Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites in Iran on June 21 “severely degraded” Iran’s capabilities and willingness to build a nuclear weapon, and the specific timeline came from intelligence assessments “inside the department,” Parnell said during a Pentagon press conference. The effectiveness of the strikes was hotly debated in the days after the dust settled, with President Donald Trump initially claiming that the strikes had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities while the corporate press seized on a leaked preliminary intel report from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) indicating the damage to Iran’s nuclear program was minimal.
“All of the conversations that we’ve had since Operation midnight Hammer with our allies all around the world, but certainly also in the region, they say a couple of things: they share our sentiments about the degradation of Iran’s nuclear program and the fact that we have degraded their program by one to two years,” Parnell said during the conference. “At least, intel assessments inside the department assess that, and I think their intelligence shares that conclusion.”
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe previously stated that it would take Iran “years” to rebuild its nuclear capabilities after the American strikes. The Israeli Atomic Energy Commission also added that they believed Iran’s ability to make a nuclear weapon was “set back many years.”
The Iranian Foreign Ministry also admitted that the facilities were “badly damaged” by the strikes.
The strikes involved seven B-2 Stealth bombers, dropping 14 GBU-57 “bunker buster” bombs over Fordow and Natanz under the cover of night. Each bomb contains over 5,000 pounds of explosives, specially designed in accordance with destroying Fordow.
“I think that nations all around the world, they know that when America is strong and speaks clearly, the world is a better and more stable place,” Parnell said during the briefing.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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