Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calls on reporters for questions during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington, Sunday, June 22, 2025, after the U.S. military struck three sites in Iran, directly joining Israel's effort to destroy the country's nuclear program. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
US Defense Department says intelligence agencies around the world agree that US, Israeli airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear program set it back significantly.
By David Rosenberg, World Israel News
American and Israeli airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities have set the Islamic republic’s nuclear program back significantly, the U.S. Department of Defense said on Wednesday.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell addressed reporters regarding both the war in Ukraine and the one-day American air campaign in Iran, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer.
Parnell emphasized that assessments by the defense department point to major damage to the three nuclear sites struck by American B-2 bombers.
The Pentagon now believes the attacks pushed Iran’s nuclear program back by two years, Parnell added.
“Iran is much further away today from a nuclear weapon than they were before the president took bold action to fulfill his promise to the American people, and that promise was Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” Parnell said.
The defense department spokesman echoed comments by senior Trump administration officials, including President Donald Trump himself, claiming that the Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz facilities struck in the bombings were “completely obliterated.”
“Our assessment of the battle damage … remains unchanged,” Parnell said.
“We believe, and certainly all of the intelligence [reports] that we’ve seen have led us to believe that … those facilities especially have been completely obliterated.”
“We have degraded their program by one to two years, at least intel assessments inside the department assess that,” Parnell noted, adding that the estimates are “probably closer to two years.”
The Pentagon’s estimates of the damage to Iran’s nuclear program are similar to assessments made by America’s allies, Parnell continued.
“They share our sentiments about the degradation of Iran’s nuclear program,” he said.
“What we’ve seen … universally among our allies was them congratulating the United States, the president and secretary of defense on that bold operation and the idea that American action in Iran has set the conditions for global stability.”
A day earlier, CBS News broadcast the second half of an interview conducted with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who confirmed that the Fordow nuclear facility suffered “serious and heavy” damage in the American attack, which utilized multiple GBU-57 heavy bunker buster bombs.
The Prime Minister’s Office declined to disclose further details about the meeting.
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