An Israeli official has shut down President Donald Trump’s claims that Iran’s nuclear program was “fully obliterated.”
Some of Iran’s enriched uranium at Fordo and Natanz survived the attacks by the United States in June and may still be accessible, according to an anonymous official who spoke to The New York Times.
However, the official said that it would be hard for Iran to transport the enriched uranium out of the facilities.
Western intelligence officials also confirmed that much of the enriched uranium was not destroyed during the attacks and is still buried under the rubble of a nuclear laboratory in Isfahan, according to the Times.
Yet, the official and other sources with access to Israeli intelligence said that it would be nearly impossible for Iran to collect the uranium and transport it out without getting caught by U.S. or Israeli surveillance satellites. Any attempt to collect the uranium would most likely invite new attacks on Iran, the source told the Times.
A Pentagon intelligence assessment in June also showed that President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran, known as “Operation Midnight Hammer,” only set the program back by a few months. The report also found that Iran had moved most of its enriched uranium stockpile before the attack.
Despite this, Trump has repeatedly claimed that Iran’s nuclear program was “completely and fully obliterated.”
“Iran will not have nuclear. We blew it up. It’s blown up to kingdom come,” the president said during a press conference at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in June just days after the strikes.
According to Iranian state media, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said that “the nuclear program of Iran will resume without interruption, and we are ready to restart enrichment; our program will not stop.”
The enriched uranium left beneath the rubble had been enriched to 60 percent purity. In order to create nuclear weapons, 90 percent enriched uranium is required.
Even if Iran finds a way to access the enriched uranium, according to the Times, more than 18,000 centrifuges in Iranian nuclear facilities were either disabled or completely destroyed during the attacks.
British and American officials have said that the real question now is how quickly Iran can rebuild its destroyed nuclear facilities.
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