On 29/6, US President Donald Trump declared that the US airstrike on three Iranian nuclear facilities successfully "neutralized Iran's nuclear weapons program." He also claimed the strike "eliminated all or most" of the Iranian government's enriched uranium supply.
Addressing US media reports suggesting the attack only "temporarily disrupted" Iran's nuclear program, Trump dismissed the information as "incomplete and unfair."
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US President Donald Trump at the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, on 25/6. Photo: AP |
US President Donald Trump at the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, on 25/6. Photo: AP
The president threatened to force journalists who reported this information to reveal their source. Trump believes Democratic lawmakers leaked the intelligence.
"Go to these reporters and say, 'Who is the source of national security information?' I think maybe we have to do that," Trump stated, adding that lawmakers who disclosed such information "should be prosecuted."
In the early hours of 22/6, the US intervened in the Iran-Israel conflict, launching an attack on three Iranian nuclear facilities and subsequently proposing negotiations with Tehran. The US and Israel have repeatedly asserted that the conflict significantly impacted Iran's nuclear program, setting back Tehran's "plan to build an atomic bomb" by at least several years. President Trump and White House officials also claimed Iran was unable to evacuate its uranium stockpile from the plants before the airstrike.
Last week, media outlets cited informed sources reporting that a classified report from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at the Pentagon assessed that the US strike only set back Iran's nuclear program by "a few months."
The president has repeatedly criticized such reporting as "unpatriotic." He specifically named CNN reporter Natasha Bertrand and called for her dismissal.
Analysts suggest that commercial satellite images taken after the attack do not definitively answer the crucial question 12 days after the conflict: whether Iran retains its enriched uranium stockpile.
Ngoc Anh (Guardian, Independent, Axios)
