Key Points and Summary on Iran Strike ‘Failure’ – The Trump administration’s claim that it “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program is facing mounting scrutiny.
-A new U.S. intelligence assessment, reported by NBC News, suggests the recent strikes only “mostly destroyed” the Fordow facility, while the Natanz and Isfahan sites could resume enrichment within months. This contradicts the White House’s narrative of total success and aligns with warnings from the UN’s nuclear chief.
-The report also reveals that President Trump rejected a more extensive, weeks-long bombing campaign, opting for a limited, single-night operation that may have left Iran’s nuclear ambitions bruised but far from buried.
The Iran B-2 Strikes Did Not Work as Advertised…
The Trump administration has pushed back against fresh claims that U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities didn’t cause as much damage as expected, describing a new report by NBC News as “fake.”
According to NBC, last month’s surprise attacks mostly destroyed the famed Fordow uranium enrichment facility, but left large parts of the Isfahan and Natanz facilities functional.
Citing five former and current officials familiar with a new U.S. intelligence assessment, the outlet claimed that the two other sites were “not as badly damaged.”
Interestingly, the outlet’s sources also claimed that while the Fordow site was set back “significantly,” the other two sites may be able to resume nuclear enrichment processes within the “next several months.”
“The credibility of the Fake News Media is similar to that of the current state of the Iranian nuclear facilities: destroyed, in the dirt, and will take years to recover,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told NewsNation on July 17.
“President Trump was clear and the American people understand: Iran’s nuclear facilities in Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz were completely and totally obliterated,” he added.
The pushback comes after the White House previously dismissed claims from CNN that the strikes only set back the Iranian nuclear program by two months. As previously noted in this outlet, the Pentagon’s public assessment and CNN’s claims are not mutually exclusive; the U.S. government could have been citing the higher end of an estimated scale while CNN sources may have been pointing to the lower end of a U.S. intelligence assessment.
NBC’s reporting, however, paints an even clearer picture: the Trump administration might actually be touting the successful destruction of Fordow while conveniently ignoring evidence that Iran’s two other sites could be operational much more quickly.
The Reason the Iran Strikes Didn’t Work
Soon after the U.S. hit Iran’s nuclear facilities on June 22, U.S. officials offered a simple explanation for why Fordow was hit with GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs while Isfahan and Natanz were struck by submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles. Fordow, they said, was the larger and better protected site that warranted the use of 30,000lb bombs – while Isfahan and Natanz were easier targets. According to the latest NBC report, however, that might not be true.
“NBC News has also learned that U.S. Central Command had developed a much more comprehensive plan to strike Iran that would have involved hitting three additional sites in an operation that would have stretched for several weeks instead of a single night,” the outlet claimed, citing one current and two former U.S. officials.
The revelation could suggest that President Trump and DOD officials opted to cause as much damage in as little time as possible, rather than engaging in a weeks-long conflict that would have guaranteed broader and more severe damage.
While the White House continues to deny the reports, a growing amount of evidence suggests that Iran not only intends to resume its nuclear program, but that it is capable of doing so quickly.
In late June, United Nations nuclear chief Rafael Grossi contradicted claims by President Trump that the Iranian nuclear program was set back by “decades.”
Grossi told CBS News that, while key facilities had been hit by the strikes, some were “still standing” and that centrifuges could be “spinning and producing enriched uranium” within a “matter of months.”
About the Author:
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society. His latest book is The Truth Teller: RFK Jr. and the Case for a Post-Partisan Presidency.
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