A classified preliminary US intelligence report has concluded that American strikes on Iran set back Tehran’s nuclear programme by just a few months — rather than destroying it as claimed by president Donald Trump.
US media on Tuesday cited people familiar with the Defence Intelligence Agency findings as saying the weekend strikes did not fully eliminate Iran’s centrifuges or stockpile of enriched uranium.
The aerial bombardments and missile strikes sealed off entrances to some facilities without destroying underground buildings, according to the report.
US media coverage of the DIA assessment appeared to anger Trump, who insisted news outlets like CNN and The New York Times were out to ‘demean’ the military strike by saying it only set back Iran’s nuclear program by a few months.
‘THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED!’ Trump posted in all caps on his Truth Social platform.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the authenticity of the DIA  assessment but said it was ‘flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked’ in an attempt to undermine Trump and discredit the military operation.
‘Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration,’ Leavitt posted on X.
Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steven Witkoff, appeared on Fox News to trumpet the White House version.
‘The reporting out there that in some ways suggests that we did not achieve the objective is just completely preposterous,’ he said Tuesday.
Witkoff repeated the assertion that the nuclear facilities at Natanz, Isfahan and Fordo had been ‘obliterated.’
‘All three of those had most if not all of the centrifuges damaged or destroyed,’ he said. ‘In a way it will be almost impossible for them to resurrect that program for — in my view and in many other experts’ views who have seen the raw data, it will take a period of years.’
US B-2 bombers hit two Iranian nuclear sites with massive GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs over the weekend, while a guided missile submarine struck a third with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Trump called the strikes a ‘spectacular military success’ and said they had ‘obliterated’ the nuclear sites, while defence secretary Pete Hegseth said Washington’s forces had ‘devastated the Iranian nuclear programme.’
General Dan Caine, the top US military officer, has offered a more cautious tone, saying the strikes caused ‘extremely severe damage’ to the Iranian facilities.
Meanwhile, Iranian lawmakers voted Wednesday in favour of suspending cooperation with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, state TV said, after a 12-day war that saw Israeli and US strikes on nuclear facilities.
‘The International Atomic Energy Agency, which refused to even marginally condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, put its international credibility up for auction,’ Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, according to state TV.
The decision still requires the approval of the Guardian Council, a body empowered to vet legislation.
Should it be ratified, Ghalibaf said ‘the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran will suspend its cooperation with the IAEA until the security of the nuclear facilities is guaranteed.’
In parliament, 221 lawmakers voted in favour and one abstained, with no votes against from those present in in the 290-seat legislature, according to state TV.
Lawmaker Alireza Salimi said the suspension of cooperation would mean that IAEA inspectors would be barred from accessing nuclear facilities unless they obtained the approval of Iran’s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, according to ISNA news agency.
Israel on June 13 launched a major bombardment campaign that targeted Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders and nuclear scientists.
On Sunday, Israel’s ally the United States launched unprecedented strikes of its own on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz, before a ceasefire was agreed on Tuesday.
Lawmakers chanted ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’ after the vote on Wednesday, state TV reported.
Since the start of the war, Iranian officials have sharply criticised the IAEA for failing to condemn the Israeli attacks.