Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell stated that the United States believes Iran’s nuclear program has been delayed by one or two years following President Donald Trump’s strikes.
“Our assessment of the battle damage around Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan remains unchanged. I mean, we believe and certainly all of the intelligence that we’ve seen have led us to believe that Iran’s — those facilities especially have been completely obliterated,” Parnell told reporters. He explained that allies in the region share the nation’s belief “about the degradation of Iran’s nuclear program and the fact that we have degraded their program by one to two years.”
“At least intel assessments inside the department assessed that and I think their intelligence shares that conclusion,” he noted.
Parnell further stated that the Pentagon believes the delay is “probably closer to two years.”
“But what we’ve seen, almost — in fact, just universally among our allies was them congratulating the United States, the president and the secretary of defense on that bold operation, and the idea that American action in Iran has set the conditions for global stability,” he explained.
The IAEA has also confirmed that Iran is facing a nuclear setback.
“I think the Iranian nuclear program has been set back significantly, significantly,” Grossi said, describing the station as “one Iran—before June 13, nuclear Iran—and one now.”
Despite the setback, the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, Amir-Saeid Iravani, told CBS News that Iran will “never stop” enriching uranium. He asserted that “enrichment is our right. An inalienable right. And we want to implement this right.”
