Trump insists Iran nuclear sites destroyed amid reports some survived

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Saturday insisted that US bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities “completely destroyed” the sites after a report said that some had largely survived.

On his Truth Social platform, Trump reiterated his frequent claim that “all three nuclear sites in Iran were completely destroyed and/or OBLITERATED.”

He said it would “take years to bring them back into service and, if Iran wanted to do so, they would be much better off starting anew, in three different locations.”

US bomb and missile attacks struck Iran’s controversial nuclear program on June 22, hitting the uranium enrichment facility at Fordo, south of Tehran, as well as nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz.

The bombings, carried out at the same time as an Israeli campaign against Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure, were billed by Washington as a knockout blow to a years-long covert effort to build nuclear weapons.

Iran insists it has not tried to weaponize its civilian nuclear power program.

Despite Trump’s claims of total success, several US media outlets have reported leaked intelligence suggesting a hazier picture.

The latest to cast doubt was an NBC News report Friday, quoting a military damage assessment that only one of the three sites was mostly destroyed.

Two other sites were deemed to be repairable and potentially able to resume uranium enrichment activities within “the next several months,” NBC reported, citing five current and former US officials aware of the assessment. NBC also reported that the Pentagon had prepared an option to inflict far greater damage on Iran’s facilities through a bombing campaign that would have lasted several weeks — not the one-night operation chosen by Trump.