WASHINGTON: Intercepted Iranian communications downplayed the extent of damage caused by US strikes on Iran’s nuclear program, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing four people familiar with classified intelligence circulating within the US government.
A source, who declined to be named, confirmed that account to Reuters but said there were serious questions about whether the Iranian officials were being truthful, and described the intercepts as unreliable indicators.
The report by the Post is the latest, however, to raise questions about the extent of the damage to Iran’s nuclear program. A leaked preliminary assessment from the Defence Intelligence Agency cautioned the strikes may have only set back Iran by months.
President Donald Trump has said the strikes “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program, but US officials acknowledge it will take time to form a complete assessment of the damage caused by the US military strikes last weekend.
The White House dismissed the report by the Post. “The notion that unnamed Iranian officials know what happened under hundreds of feet of rubble is nonsense. Their nuclear weapons program is over,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was quoted as saying by the Post.
In an interview broadcast on Sunday on Fox News, Trump reiterated his confidence that the strikes had destroyed Iran’s nuclear capabilities. “It was obliterated like nobody’s ever seen before. And that meant the end to their nuclear ambitions, at least for a period of time,” he said on the “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo” program.
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