The senator personally explained the US strike over Iran’s nuclear facility
Trump officials gave senators a classified briefing on the US strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Iran’s nuclear program was hit badly by the US bomb strike but has not faced “total damage” and the program could re-operate within months, the UN’s nuclear watchdog chief said on Sunday.
President Donald Trump has another view on the outcome of the strike at major locations of the nuclear program, telling Fox News “Sunday Morning Future” that “thousands of tons of rock in the room now.” The entire place was destroyed.”
However, the Washington Post reported on Sunday that the US intercepted communications among senior Iranian officials who have said the attacks were less devastating than expected. The post cites four people who are familiar with the classified information circulating within the US government. The Tehran Times then reported that “the core of Iran’s nuclear program continues to work.”
Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the non-sponsored International Atomic Energy Agency, said his agency has not conducted a military assessment but uses “logic” when determining that Iran’s nuclear program could be put into operation quite quickly.
“They can have a few cascades of centrifuges that spin and produce enriched uranium within a few months. “But frankly, like I said, you can’t argue that everything is gone and nothing is there.”
Grossi said he hopes Iran will continue its nuclear program “no outlines yet” and hopefully expects it to become part of the negotiations. Again, Trump disagreed.
“It was wiped out so no one had seen it before, and it at least meant the end of their nuclear ambitions,” Trump said. “The last thing they want to do now is to think about the nucleus. They have to bring themselves back to their state and form.”
Grossi admitted that some of the already abundant uranium may have been destroyed by Iranian scientists as part of the attack. But some could have been moved, he said.
Trump once again had a different opinion, telling Fox News that moving uranium is “very difficult, very dangerous and very heavy.” Iran didn’t believe the US would actually try to bomb nuclear weapons, and “we didn’t know we were coming,” Trump said.
Grossi described Iran as a “very sophisticated country” from a nuclear technology perspective.
“We can’t discover this,” Grossi said. “You can’t reverse the knowledge you have or the abilities you have.”
It should serve as an incentive to reach an agreement, Grossi said. The contract should also include an inspection system that “can give to everyone… and can definitely turn the page” that guarantees we can do.
Iran will continue to be firm in the demand that it must begin its speech with an explicit recognition of its right to sovereignty to enrich uranium in its own soil, the Tehran Times reported.
Trump has asserted that Iran will not avoid nuclear weapons under his watch.
“Iran cannot have nuclear weapons,” he said when explaining why it bombed the site. “They’ve wanted this for years and they’ve been away from getting it for a few weeks.”
Trump ordered a strike at Iran’s nuclear facility – Operation Midnight Hammer – effectively participated in the war that began on June 13, when Israel began bombing Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure. Israel said it will help the US coordinate and plan the strike.
Trump said all three sites were “completely gone.” The pentagonal evaluation is inconclusive, and Iran says the nuclear program rarely skips beats. Actual damages and impact on Iran’s programmes could become more clear in the coming days.
