On July 2 (local time), the US Department of Defense announced that a series of airstrikes carried out by the country 10 days ago had significantly weakened Iran's nuclear program, estimated to have delayed it by 1 to 2 years. This information was announced by Pentagon spokesman - Mr. Sean Parnell - at a press conference with reporters.
According to Mr. Parnell, internal intelligence assessments by the Ministry of National Defense show that Iran's nuclear program has been delayed for up to 2 years. However, he did not provide specific evidence to support this assessment. All the intelligence we have collected shows that those nuclear facilities, especially those hit by airstrikes, were completely destroyed, he said.
The attack took place on June 22, with the participation of US strategic bombards, targeting 3 Iranian nuclear facilities. The US military used more than 10 13,600 kg medium-barge bombs and more than 20 Tomahawk cruise missiles to conduct the airstrike.
President Donald Trump said immediately after the attack that Iran's nuclear program had been "erased". The term was later repeated at the Pentagon press conference. However, intelligence assessments often take a long time to reach accurate conclusions, so the real impact is still being closely monitored.
A week ago, an initial report from the US Defense Intelligence Agency said that the attack only slowed down Iran's nuclear program for a few months. However, officials in the Trump administration said that this is a low-credible assessment and has been replaced by new intelligence that shows more serious damage.
On the Iranian side, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi confirmed that the Fordow nuclear facility suffered "serious and heavy damage". He said no one knew exactly what happened inside the facility, but what is known so far shows a huge level of sabotage.
Meanwhile, Rafael Grossi, general director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that Iran could produce enriched uranium in the next few months, raising questions about the long-term effectiveness of the attack.
Some experts have also warned that Iran may have moved its near-use-use uranium depot out of Fordow before the airstrike, making damage assessments more complicated.
However, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth affirmed that he had not received any intelligence reports showing that Iran had evacuated this amount of uranium.
