U.S. strikes on three key targets in Iran over the weekend did not destroy key components of the country’s nuclear program, according to an early Pentagon intelligence assessment.
The daring mission to bomb the sites likely only set the program back months, four people briefed on the report told CNN.
The intelligence undermines Trump’s repeated insistence that the nuclear sites were “completely and fully obliterated.”
The assessment was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency within the Defense Department and is based on an assessment of battle damage by U.S. Central Command conducted after the strikes, one of the sources told CNN.
The assessment found that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed, two of the people familiar said, and one of the sources said the centrifuges were largely intact.
The New York Times citing officials familiar with the assessment also reported that the preliminary findings found the bombings sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings.
The assessment also said much of the enriched uranium stockpile was moved in advance, and the strikes destroyed little nuclear material.
It comes as top Trump administration officials have touted the success of the strikes late Saturday against Iran’s nuclear program but some have been publicly evasive when it comes to details about the extent of the damage or the enriched uranium in the aftermath.
The White House on Tuesday directly rejected the early intelligence assessment while acknowledging its existence to CNN.
“This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program. Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration,” she continued.
Trump’s claims that Iran’s nuclear program has been “obliterated” have been repeated by Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
However, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine said the morning after the strikes that the assessment would take some time and it was too early to weigh in while touting the operational success of Saturday’s daring mission.
The new assessment revelations come as Senate and House briefings on Iran were scrapped at the last minute on Tuesday. Democrats blasted the administration for not being more forthcoming with Congress.
“The last minute postponement was just a dereliction of their duty to let the Congress know,” said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “So what’s the administration so afraid of that they don’t want to brief us? They keep delaying it.”
The Senate briefing is rescheduled for Thursday. Schumer said that the excuse for postponing was so that Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who are with Trump at the NATO summit, could be there, but neither were originally scheduled to attend anyway.
“Hegseth and even Rubio will give us a lot of happy talk but not the sinew, the details that we need,” Schumer said.
He argued those who were supposed to brief the Senate on Tuesday would have given them the details they needed.
“Is it in fact the case that Iran’s nuclear program has been completely and totally obliterated?” asked House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
“There are apparently reasons to believe that that was a blatant misrepresentation made by Donald Trump to the American people,” he continued.
Jeffries blasted the House briefing being postponed. He also noted that there has not even been a briefing with the so-called Gang of Eight, which includes the eight congressional leaders briefed on intelligence matters.
When asked if he was confident that Iran’s nuclear facilities had been obliterated, Senate Majority Leader John Thune sidestepped the question and said they know the nuclear program had been setback “considerably.”
