The Pentagon on Wednesday sharpened its assessment of Iran’s nuclear program, declaring that Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon following the U.S. strike on its nuclear facilities is “closer to two years” away.
The assessment from Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, appeared to be significantly more optimistic than by U.N. inspectors at the International Atomic Energy Agency. IAEA’s director general Rafael Grossi said last weekend that he believed Iran could begin enriching uranium in a matter of months.
Military officials and experts have said that there is no doubt the U.S. bombing of three key nuclear sites in Iran — Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan — caused signficant damage when they were hit by 14 bunker-buster bombs and two dozen Tomahawk missiles.
But they caution that a firm intelligence assessment will take time to do. And nuclear experts question whether some of the enriched uranium could have been moved in advance or stored elsewhere — a possibility the Trump administration dismisses as improbable.
When asked what the latest intelligence might show, Parnell told reporters at a Pentagon briefing that the administration’s stance is unchanged that Iran’s nuclear sites were “completely obliterated.” The term “obliterated” was first used by President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the hours after the bombing.
“It’s delayed by one to two years. I think we’re thinking probably closer to two years,” Parnell told reporters.
He added that the U.S. strike took a psychological toll because it relied on bombers that were capable of flying nonstop for nearly 37 hours, in addition to destroying the physical sites Iran was using the produce enriched uranium.
“It’s not just … enriched uranium or centrifuges or things like that. We destroyed the components that they would need to build a bomb,” he said.
“And so when you take that constellation of things into consideration, yeah, we believe that Iran’s nuclear capability has been severely degraded. It’s even their ambition to build a bomb,” he added.
Republicans said they were satisfied with the administration’s assessment, whereas several Democrats said they remained skeptical after being briefed on the strike on Capitol Hill.
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