The Hague (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – U.S. President Donald Trump stated on Wednesday that missile attacks over the weekend had seriously damaged Iranian nuclear installations, but he also admitted that the intelligence at that time was “inconclusive.”
His remarks came after media reports on Tuesday said the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency had found that the strikes had only delayed Iran’s nuclear program by a few months, despite administration officials claiming the program had been destroyed.
“The intelligence was very inconclusive,”
Trump briefed journalists before joining a NATO summit in The Hague.
“The intelligence says we don’t know. It could’ve been very severe. That’s what the intelligence suggests.”
Later, in the same round of remarks, Trump claimed that Iran’s nuclear deal had been dealt a setback
“basically decades, because I don’t think they’ll ever do it again”.
What did Trump mean by ‘decades-long setback’?
Moreover, Trump said that Iran is “not going to enrich” uranium or have a nuclear bomb.
“The last thing they want to do is enrich anything, they want to recover”
from attacks by Israel and the US, Trump stated at the NATO summit in the Netherlands. He lauded Washington’s attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, arguing that Iran would not agree to a ceasefire otherwise.
Trump was seated alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, both of whom also questioned the DIA assessment’s reliability. Rubio stated that the U.S. was launching an investigation into the leak of the DIA report and suggested that the media had misrepresented its contents.
Will Iran halt uranium enrichment after recent strikes?
According to Reuters, a preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment has found that U.S. strikes over the weekend on Iranian nuclear facilities have only delayed Tehran’s program by a few months.
Two sources said that the initial report was written by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s primary intelligence arm, and one of 18 U.S. intelligence agencies. Both sources asked to remain anonymous to discuss classified information. Sources claimed that an assessment found that Iran could revive its nuclear program in just a few months. One source said the earliest possible restart could come in one to two months.
