Airstrikes ‘very seriously damaged’ Iran’s entire nuclear program, French spy master says

The head of France’s top intel agency says US and Israeli airstrikes caused severe damage to every stage of Iran’s nuclear program, setting it back significantly.

By World Israel News Staff

American and Israeli airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs caused serious damage to Tehran’s capacity for building a nuclear weapon, France’s top intelligence official said on Tuesday.

Speaking with France’s LCI channel, Nicolas Lerner, the director of the Directorate General for External Security (DGSE), said that according to his agency’s preliminary assessment, “every stage” of Iran’s nuclear program, including the development of ballistic missiles capable of mounting atomic warheads, suffered major damage during the 12-day war last month.

“Our assessment today is that every stage of the process,” including uranium enrichment, warhead design, and the development of missiles to deploy atomic warheads, “was very seriously affected, very seriously damaged,” Lerner said.

“The Iranian nuclear program as we know it has been very, very delayed.”

The estimate is part of DGSE’s preliminary assessment, Lerner emphasized, adding that France’s understanding of the extent of the damage to Iran’s nuclear program “needs to be fine-tuned.”

“No intelligence service in the world was capable in the hours after these strikes of making a perfect, full evaluation of what happened.”

However, Lerner warned that Iran likely managed to save most of its enriched uranium stockpile, estimated by the International Atomic Energy Agency to include close to 1,000 pounds of uranium enriched to 60% purity.

“There’s consensus on the fact that the material — the 450 kilograms of enriched uranium — maybe a small part was destroyed, but that material remains in the hands of the regime.”

“Today we have indications [on where it is], but we cannot say with certainty as long as the IAEA does not restart its work. It’s very important. We won’t have the capacity to trace.”

Lerner speculated that Iran could reconstitute its nuclear program to enrich its existing uranium stockpile on a smaller scale, to bring it to the 90% purity level for weapons-grade uranium.

“That’s why France is so attached to finding a diplomatic solution to this nuclear crisis,” Lerner added.