Following the US strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, debate and disagreement over the impact of the strike have raged, with US President Donald Trump and senior US officials giving different interpretations of what happened.
The strike, which took place last week, reportedly involved B2 bombers dropping GBU-57 “bunker buster” missiles on the Fordow facility, and also targeted Natanz and Isfahan, key sites for Iran’s nuclear program.
In addition, US Navy warships fired up to 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles at targets inside Iran.
President Trump has reacted angrily to a leaked intelligence report that suggested the strike had only set back Iran’s nuclear program for a short time. Trump, in a post on his Truth Social account, insisted that Iran’s nuclear facilities had been completely destroyed.
White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt said the leaked intelligence report was “an attempt to discredit President Trump and the bravery of the pilots who carried out a military operation that he said was masterfully planned.”
However, US military leaders have sounded a note of caution. The top US military commander, General Dan Caine, said the three sites targeted had suffered “significant damage and significant damage”, but a full assessment was still underway.
Meanwhile, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, announced that his agency was no longer able to monitor Iran’s stockpile of 400kg of highly enriched uranium, which is 60% pure uranium. The stockpile has caused great concern among the Western community and its allies, and is close to the level needed to make a nuclear weapon.
US Vice President JD Vance has acknowledged that the US government does not know the exact amount of uranium stockpile, “We will be working hard in the coming weeks to address the potential threat from that stockpile,” Vance said.
It has also been revealed that the Department of Defense was aware that the GBU-57 heavy weapon could not reach Iran’s nuclear weapons because of the depth of the site, which is 145-300 feet of solid rock. Senior officials have even noted that the only way to completely destroy the facility is with nuclear weapons.
As the controversy surrounding the success of the attack intensifies, the biggest question now is: Does Iran still have the capacity to rebuild its nuclear program? And the official answer is still not available.
