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The Trump administration is attempting to disconnect two events that are clearly related. The administration canceled the scheduled classified briefing to Congress about the Iran bombing, and then it was reported that the initial US assessment is that Iran’s nuclear program was not destroyed and may have only been set back months by Trump’s bombing.
The US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, according to an early US intelligence assessment that was described by four people briefed on it.
The assessment, which has not been previously reported, was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm. It is based on a battle damage assessment conducted by US Central Command in the aftermath of the US strikes, one of the sources said.
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Two of the people familiar with the assessment said Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed. One of the people said the centrifuges are largely “intact.
Trump was wrong when he claimed that the Iranian nuclear program was “obliterated.” Trump has no information that the strike was successful in taking out Iran’s nuclear program.