The extent of damage inflicted on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure by recent U.S. airstrikes remains uncertain amid conflicting reports from Washington, Tehran, and international observers.
President Donald Trump, in a Fox News interview, declared that the strikes had obliterated Iran’s nuclear capabilities. “It was obliterated like nobody’s ever seen before,” he said, referencing the air raids on three key facilities, including Fordow an underground uranium enrichment site nestled deep within a mountain. Trump claimed that “thousands of tons of rock” now buried the facility, calling it a major blow to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
However, a classified assessment from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), leaked on Tuesday, contradicted Trump’s statement. The report indicated that the strikes likely failed to destroy Fordow’s underground components and might have only delayed Iran’s nuclear program by a few months.
This more cautious view is echoed by Rafael Grossi, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who said on Sunday that while there was “severe damage,” Iran retains the industrial and technological capacity to restart uranium enrichment “within a matter of months.”
Iranian officials also pushed back against claims of total destruction. Mehdi Mohammadi, an adviser to the Iranian parliament’s chair, stated that the Fordow facility had been evacuated ahead of the strikes, minimizing irreversible damage.
Israeli officials, however, claimed otherwise. The Israel Atomic Energy Commission asserted that Fordow had become “inoperable,” and Israeli forces reportedly bombed surrounding access roads to impede recovery efforts.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported intercepted Iranian communications suggesting the strikes were “less devastating than expected.” These messages, according to unnamed U.S. sources, offered a more nuanced picture, one that the Trump administration dismissed.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized such claims, insisting that Iran’s nuclear program was effectively dismantled. “The notion that unnamed Iranian officials know what happened under hundreds of feet of rubble is nonsense,” she said.
As competing narratives emerge, the true status of Iran’s nuclear program remains a topic of intense scrutiny, raising concerns about transparency, geopolitical motives, and the future of nuclear nonproliferation in the region.
