Iran’s nuclear site is “severely damaged”

The CIA chief said the U.S. strike “severely damaged” Iran’s nuclear facilities and backed them down for years, unlike a leaked intelligence report that angered President Donald Trump and underestimated the impact of the raid.

John Ratcliffe, director of the U.S. spy agency, said the main locations had been destroyed, even though he stopped announcing that Iran’s nuclear program had been completely eliminated.

The preliminary assessment by the Pentagon intelligence agency leaked the preliminary assessment after the U.S. bombing, which was the second day.

President Trump once again insists that the raid has “destroyed” Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Republican presidents went to social media on Wednesday to post “fake news” media “lied and completely misrepresented the facts, and they had no facts.”

He said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other military officials will hold a “interesting and irrefutable news” meeting in the Pentagon to win the dignity of our great American pilot.

This is because Israel and Iran seem to respect Trump’s fragile ceasefire in negotiations on the 12th day of the war.

“It’s very harsh. It’s gone,” Trump said of the strike in The Hague, who attended the NATO summit on Wednesday.

He also said he may seek Iran’s commitment to end talks next week. Iran has not yet admitted any such negotiations.

But US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff told the US NBC network that direct and indirect communication between the two countries was conducted.

Ratcliffe’s statement said the CIA’s information included “new intelligence obtained from historically reliable, accurate sources/methods, that several critical Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and had to be rebuilt over the years”.

National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard also supports Trump’s assessment of damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“If the Iranians choose to rebuild, they will have to completely rebuild all three facilities (Natanz, Fordo, Esfahan), which could take years,” she wrote on X.

The U.S. operation involved 125 military aircraft targeting three major Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday.

New satellite images show that six craters gathered at two entrance points in Fordo, similar craters were found in Isfahan. But it is not clear whether nuclear facilities deep underground have been eliminated.

A report from the Pentagon Defense Intelligence Agency leaked to U.S. media on Tuesday, and it is estimated that the U.S. bombing has placed Iran’s nuclear program “only a few months.”

The U.S. Secretary of Defense said the assessment was conducted with “low confidence.”

Officials familiar with the assessment warn that this is an early assessment that may change as more information emerges. The United States has 18 intelligence agencies that sometimes cause conflicts based on their mission and areas of expertise.

Rafael Grossi, head of the UN nuclear regulator, said Wednesday that when it is under attack, there is a high chance that Tehran will transfer its highly abundant uranium elsewhere.

But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told Al Jazeera on Wednesday: “Our nuclear facilities have been severely damaged, that’s for sure.” He did not elaborate.

A report from the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission said the strike at Fordo “destroyed critical infrastructure at the site.”

The report said damage at all locations delayed Iran’s nuclear weapons schedule for “years.”

However, Mehdi Mohammadi, an adviser to the Iranian parliament president, said shortly after the U.S. strike that “no irreversible damage” was suffered in Fordo.

Iran has long insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful. US intelligence agencies have previously stated that Tehran has not actively built atomic weapons.