[WASHINGTON] President Donald Trump’s administration hit back Wednesday at accounts Iran may have moved enriched uranium before US bombing, as a row grew on how much the strikes set back Tehran’s nuclear program.
Trump, seeking credit for ordering military action and then quickly announcing a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, has lashed out angrily at media accounts of a classified report that doubted the extent of damage to Iranian nuclear sites.
Another key question raised by experts is whether Iran, preparing for the strike, moved out some 400 kg of enriched uranium – which could now be hidden elsewhere in the vast country.
“I can tell you, the United States had no indication that that enriched uranium was moved prior to the strikes, as I also saw falsely reported,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News.
“As for what’s on the ground right now, it’s buried under miles and miles of rubble because of the success of these strikes on Saturday evening,” she said.
Vice President JD Vance, asked about the uranium on Sunday, had sounded less definitive and said the United States would discuss the issue with Iran.
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“We’re going to work in the coming weeks to ensure that we do something with that fuel,” Vance told ABC News programme This Week.
The quantity of uranium had been reported by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, with which Iran is considering severing cooperation after the Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear programme.
“The IAEA lost visibility on this material the moment hostilities began,” the agency’s chief, Rafael Grossi, told France 2 television.
But he added: “I don’t want to give the impression that it’s been lost or hidden.”
Trump lashes out
The US military said it dropped 14 GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs – powerful 13,600-kg weapons – on three Iranian nuclear sites.
Trump has repeatedly said that the attack “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities, including the key site of Fordo buried inside a mountain.
But an initial classified assessment, first reported by CNN, was said to have concluded that the strike did not destroy key components and that Iran’s nuclear program was set back only months at most.
Trump furiously lashed out at the CNN reporter behind the story, taking to his Truth Social platform to demand that the network fire her.
Trump also said that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom he dubbed “war” secretary, would hold a news conference at 8 am (1200 GMT) on Thursday to “fight for the dignity of our great American pilots” after the media accounts on the efficacy of the strike he ordered.
Trump’s intelligence chiefs also pushed back on Wednesday.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe in a statement said that new intelligence from a “historically reliable” source indicated that “several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.”
Iran’s government has said that its nuclear facilities were “badly damaged.”
The uranium in question is enriched to 60 per cent – above levels for civilian usage but still below weapons grade.
The IAEA, in a report cited by the United States and Israel to justify their attacks, said that Iran was not complying with obligations but did not find that Tehran was making a nuclear bomb.
Israel is widely known to have nuclear weapons but does not publicly confirm or deny its programme. The United States is the only nation to have used nuclear weapons in war. AFP
