Speaking from the NATO summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday, President Trump disclosed that Israeli operatives had been dispatched to assess the damage at the Iranian nuclear sites hit in the recent U.S. airstrikes. According to Trump, those operatives confirmed that the facilities were completely destroyed. He also maintained that the operation had been executed so swiftly that Iran had no time to extract any enriched uranium.
Trump continued to push back against leaked intelligence indicating that Iran’s nuclear program could potentially recover within a few months. He repeated his stance that the attack had crippled Iran’s capabilities for years to come. “Israel is doing a report on it now, I understand, and I was told that they said it was total obliteration,” Trump said to reporters.
“You know they have guys that go in there after the hit, and they said it was total obliteration,” he added. “I believe it was total obliteration.”
Trump argued that the enriched uranium being processed at the targeted sites could not have been evacuated before the assault. “They didn’t have a chance to get anything out because we acted fast. If it would have taken two weeks, maybe. But it’s very hard to remove that kind of material, very hard and very dangerous for them to remove it,” he said.
He also emphasized that Tehran had advance warning that a strike might be imminent, which likely deterred personnel from remaining at the sites. “Plus they knew we were coming, and if they know we’re coming, they’re not going to be down there.”
He went on to assert that Iran’s nuclear ambitions had been thrown off course for “basically decades,” though he made clear that if the regime attempted to restart its program, the U.S. would not hesitate to act again. “The last thing they want to do is enrich anything right now. They want to recover, and we won’t let that happen,” Trump declared.
“Number one, militarily, we won’t. I think we’ll end up having somewhat of a relationship with Iran. I see it. Look, I’ve had a relationship over the last four days. They agreed to the ceasefire, and it was a very equal agreement. They both said that’s enough.”
His remarks came in response to a classified report from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) that was leaked to CNN. The assessment suggested that Iran’s nuclear program could be rebuilt within a few months. The White House strongly refuted the findings.
“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,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X.
She added, “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.”
{Matzav.com}