An Israeli member of the Knesset is refuting claims made by President Donald Trump that one of Iran\u2019s foremost nuclear weapons sites has been \u201cobliterated\u201d following strikes by B-2 bombers using bunker buster munitions earlier this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the NATO summit on Wednesday morning, Trump asserted that intelligence agents had inspected the Fordow facility and declared its destruction. But MK Aryeh Deri rejected Trump\u2019s claim that Israeli operatives had visited Iranian nuclear sites to assess the aftermath of the strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo one knows\u2014because no one has visited there yet,\u201d the ultra-Orthodox lawmaker told Haredi news site Kikar Hashabbat. \u201cAccording to all the statistics, assessments, and satellite imagery, damage has been caused there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, responding to reports on the American intelligence assessments, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi told Ynet something different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Iranian program to produce nuclear weapons has suffered a dramatic blow and will take many years to restore it,\u201d Hanegbi said. \u201cThe largest uranium enrichment facility in Natanz has been completely destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe reprocessing facility for metallic uranium in Isfahan has been completely destroyed. The nuclear facility in Arak, which was intended to enable a plutogenic pathway for weapons, has been destroyed. Regarding the extent of the damage caused by the American bombing of the underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordow, the estimates are that it will not be possible to restore it to normal operation over time,\u201d he added<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump and other senior administration officials have pushed back over the past 24 hours against reports claiming that the U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites failed to destroy critical components of the nuclear program, instead only delaying it by a few months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was very severe. There was obliteration,\u201d Trump told reporters in The Hague Wednesday, where the NATO summit is being held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also said that the nuclear facilities were totally destroyed, and that the U.S. \u201cset back the Iranian nuclear program decades.\u201d The president also said that \u201cthey\u2019re not going to have a bomb and they\u2019re not going to enrich,\u201d speaking of the Iranians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He asserted that Israeli agents had inspected the Fordow facility and were reporting complete destruction, adding that Israel would soon release an official assessment. \u201cThey have guys that go in there after the hit , they said it was total obliteration,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe intelligence says we don\u2019t know. It could\u2019ve been very severe. That\u2019s what the intelligence suggests,\u201d he added, likely citing a Defense Intelligence Agency assessment containing \u201clow confidence\u201d information immediately following the strikes that was leaked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe bombs landed where they were supposed to land, there was devastation,\u201d Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been doubling as Trump\u2019s national security adviser, also pushed back on claims that the strikes were largely ineffective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe bottom line is, they are much further away from a nuclear weapon today than they were before the president took this bold action,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cThat\u2019s the most important thing to understand \u2014 significant, very significant, substantial damage was done to a variety of different components, and we\u2019re just learning more about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n U.S. Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff called for an investigation to identify the source of the intelligence assessment leak to the American media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt goes without saying that leaking that type of information, whatever the information, whatever side it comes out on, is outrageous. It\u2019s treasonous,\u201d he told Fox News. \u201cIt ought to be investigated, and whoever is responsible should be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hegseth announced on Wednesday that the FBI was investigating the leak of the DIA assessment. \u201cOf course, we\u2019re doing a leak investigation with the FBI right now because this information is for internal purposes. Battle damage assessments,\u201d Hegseth said<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An Israeli member of the Knesset is refuting claims made by President Donald Trump that one of Iran\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":723,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions\/723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}