Amid conflicting reports on the impact of US bombing on Iranian nuclear sites, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said that the attack has set Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons back by many years.
In a post on X, Netanyahu said citing the Israel Atomic Energy Commission that the devastating US strike on Fordow destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable. He said, ‘We assess that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other elements of Iran’s military nuclear program, has set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years. The achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material’.
This comes amid some reports claimed that US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities did not destroy the country’s nuclear programme and probably only set it back by months. Citing an alleged leaked Pentagon report, it was claimed that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was not eliminated in the bombing.
The report claimed that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile was moved before the strikes, citing an assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s military intelligence wing.
However, Donald Trump has already denied this report, claiming “total obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear program during the NATO summit in the Netherlands. ” It was very severe. It was obliteration… I believe it was total obliteration,” he told reporters.
