US airstrikes on Iran set back the regime’s nuclear program between one to two years, but likely “closer to two,” the Pentagon’s top spokesperson said Wednesday.
“Our assessment of the battle damage around Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan remains unchanged,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told reporters during a press briefing.
“We believe, and certainly all of the intelligence that we’ve seen has led us to believe, that those facilities, especially, have been completely obliterated.”
US allies share the Department of Defense’s internal intelligence assessments of the effectiveness of last month’s military operation on Iran’s uranium enrichment sites, Parnell noted, including how long the Pentagon expects it will now take the Islamic Republic to build a nuclear weapon.
“We have degraded their program by one to two years, at least,” Parnell said.
“We’re thinking probably closer to two years,” he added.
Last month, President Trump and several top administration officials slammed a leaked preliminary assessment of Operation Midnight Hammer, which reportedly indicated Iran could bring its nuclear program back online in as quickly as one to two months.
The classified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) bomb damage assessment — reported by the New York Times and CNN — estimated that on the high end, Iran could restart uranium enrichment within a year, according to those who viewed the report.
Multiple B-2 Spirit stealth bombers dropped 14, 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear sites as part of Operation Midnight Hammer on June 22.
The attack was complemented by a barrage of dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles fired by a US submarine.
Trump ordered the airstrike after intelligence pointed to Iran getting close to developing a nuclear weapon and after more than a week of back-and-forth strikes between Tehran and Israel.
Trump told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that the attack “meant the end to [Iran’s] nuclear ambitions, at least for a period of time.”
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