From Daily Mail: Iran has today admitted its nuclear facilities were ‘badly damaged’ by US bombs after Donald Trump insisted they were ‘obliterated’ and lashed out at ‘fake’ news coverage suggesting he failed to deliver a knock-out blow.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei conceded there had been significant impact caused by American bunker-busting bombs at the country’s three main nuclear sites at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz.
It comes after Trump insisted the nuclear facilities were ‘obliterated’ and compared his airstrikes to the two nuclear bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War II.
Speaking again at the NATO summit in The Hague, Trump addressed the Israel-Iran conflict and the US military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
“It was very, very successful. We called it obliteration. No other military could have done it,” he said.
He said the US decision to strike shows it has “reasserted the ability of American deterrence.”
Trump cited an assessment by the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) that said the damage caused by Israeli and American strikes have set Iran’s nuclear capabilities back by “many years.”
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released the following statement from the IAEC:
The devastating US strike on Fordow destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable.
We assess that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other elements of Iran’s military nuclear program, has set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.
The achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material.
France is now wading into the debate. It will carry out its own analysis on the damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities. President Emmanuel Macron said he’d share the results with France’s allies, including the US and Israelis.
“We are finalising our analysis with everything we have and then it will be confronted with the analysis of other interested countries, obviously the Americans, other Europeans, Israelis,” Macron said.
Trump has repeatedly denounced claims that the US strikes were not a great success, specifically calling out CNN and the New York Times for publicizing the a leaked intelligence report.
Trump said CNN had “demeaned” the achievements of American pilots and that the outlet was “wasting everyone’s time.” He slammed the :failing New York Times,” saying they were still in business because of him.
“All of these terrible people have no credibility,” he said, referring to members of the media.
Trump was asked if he would allowing China to purchase Iran’s oil again.
Trump said, “They’ve just had a war,” and that it was “fought bravely.”
“If they’re going to sell oil, they’re going to sell oil,” he added.
Trump said his administration will have talks with Iran next week.
The information listed is from DailyMail.
