Report: US airstrikes only set back Iran nuke program by months

After President Trump railed against reports questioning the impact of US airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear program, sources claim that US intel assesses that bombings inflicted only moderate damage.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

A new report published Wednesday morning claims that American airstrikes on three key Iranian nuclear facilities inflicted only moderate damage on the country’s nuclear program, setting it back by several months.

On Tuesday, a visibly frustrated President Donald Trump lashed out at media reports claiming that B-2 stealth bomber strikes on Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz failed to cause crippling damage to Iran’s nuclear program.

“CNN is scum and so is MSDNC,” Trump told reporters as he prepared to depart Washington for a NATO meeting at The Hague, mocking the MSNBC cable news network. “They‘re all! And frankly, the networks aren’t much better. It’s all fake news!”

“I think it‘s been completely demolished. I think the reason we‘re here is because those pilots, those B-2 pilots, did an unbelievable job,” Trump said when asked to respond to reports that Iran managed to preserve much of its uranium stockpile.

“And, you know, the fake news – like CNN in particular – they‘re trying to say, ‘Well, I agree that it was destroyed, but maybe not that destroyed.’ You know what they‘re doing. They’re really hurting great pilots that put their lives on the line.”

A day later, however, Reuters published another report challenging the Trump administration’s claim of having effectively destroyed Iran’s nuclear program.

Citing three sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, the report claimed that a preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment suggests that the strikes set back Iran’s nuclear program by several months.

The report does not name the agency behind the alleged assessment. The United States Intelligence Community includes 18 separate agencies and organizations.

Seven American B-2 Spirit stealth bombers dropped a total of 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators – 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs – on Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow in strikes over the weekend.

Iran has not disclosed the extent of the damage to the three sites, though satellite imagery shows signs of impact points and terrain cracks which analysts have claimed points to significant damage.

However, some reports claim Iran transferred much of its enriched uranium stockpile out of the three facilities prior to the attacks.

Prior to the beginning of the Israeli attacks on Iran, the United Nations agency charged with regulating nuclear energy estimated that the Islamic republic had a large enough stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% purity to build 9 – 10 atomic bombs, if enriched to 90%.