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Trump claims destruction of Iran’s nuclear programme, but US intelligence puts the brakes on

After the raids on Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, the president speaks of “total demolition”. Intelligence agencies, however, speak only of a slowdown

Donald Trump is certain: Iran’s nuclear programme has been “obliterated”. After the bombing of the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan sites with B-2 bombers and Tomahawk missiles, the US president spoke of a “definitive” operation, ruling out any possibility that Tehran could rebuild its nuclear capabilities. ‘Those places have been demolished, they’re gone,’ he said before the NATO summit in The Hague, after the truce that ended the war.

However, the president’s words are not fully reflected in the assessments of American intelligence. According to CNN, confidential sources from the Pentagon and CentCom intelligence speak of a slowdown in the programme, not its elimination. Iranian centrifuges are said to be largely intact, and enriched uranium stocks were secured before the raid. The estimated damage? A delay of a few months.

The Washington Post also confirms this version, referring to a classified report that the attacks did not hit all the key components of the programme. Iran, either informed or foresighted, reportedly transferred part of its nuclear stockpile before the attack, reducing its actual impact.

The White House rejects the criticism. Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt called the intelligence assessment “absolutely wrong”, accusing an “anonymous loser” of leaking it to the media to discredit the president and the pilots who carried out the operation. “It was a total success, and CNN should apologise to our military,” Trump said.

Israeli intelligence is also cautious. According to the Times of Israel, the authorities in Tel Aviv believe that the Iranian programme has been slowed down, but not eliminated. An estimate speaks of a delay of ‘several years’, but not of definitive destruction.

Finally, even at the UN, the language is cautious. The interim US envoy to the United Nations, Dorothy Shea, said the operation had ‘effectively reduced Iran’s ability to produce a nuclear weapon,’ stressing that the raids were carried out ‘in accordance with the right of collective self-defence.’

But Trump is not backing down. Convinced of the mission’s total success, he renews his criticism of the media: ‘These networks are rubbish. The pilots did their job better than anyone could have imagined. They hit the target in the dark, without a moon. Those sites are gone, period.’

In a still tense context, the contrast between political narrative and technical assessments continues to paint an uncertain picture of the future of Iran’s nuclear programme.

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