United States Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine have responded to a leaked intelligence report suggesting the military’s strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities likely put the country back by mere months.
In a Thursday morning news conference from the Pentagon, the two officials maintained that Iran’s nuclear programme had been destroyed, echoing President Donald Trump’s version of events.
But that contradicted a preliminary report, produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), saying the June 22 bombing campaign was a relatively minor setback for Iran’s nuclear capabilities, which could be restored within months.
“President Trump delivered the most complex and secretive military operation in history, and it was a resounding success resulting in the ceasefire agreement and the end of the 12-day war,” said Hegseth.
“Because of decisive military action, President Trump created the conditions to end the war, decimating — choose your word — obliterating, destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities.”
Drawing reliable conclusions about the effect of the US strikes is difficult only days after they took place.
President Trump has insisted, however, that the US strikes delivered a “devastating” attack. He has also told reporters that questioning his assessment of the strike was not only unpatriotic but also made the pilots who dropped the bombs “very upset”.
While Hegseth and Caine spoke, Trump encouraged his followers on the platform Truth Social to watch their remarks, calling it “one of the greatest, most professional, and most ‘confirming’ News Conferences I have ever seen!”
He also wrote that news outlets like The New York Times and CNN would be “firing the reporters who made up the FAKE stories” on the Iran bombing campaign, though there is no evidence to support that assertion.
A day earlier, on Wednesday, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe said the US attacks in Iran caused severe damage to Tehran’s nuclear programme.
“New intelligence from ‘historically reliable’ methods had shown that ‘several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years,’” Ratcliffe said in a statement, which lacked further details.
A military assessment
The June 22 bombing campaign marked the US’s only direct intervention in what Trump has dubbed the 12-Day War between Iran and Israel.
The conflict started on June 13, when Israel launched a series of attacks on military targets in Iran, killing several generals and scientists in its nuclear programme.
Israel argued the attacks were necessary to hobble Iran’s efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon. Iran, meanwhile, has maintained it has never sought to create a nuclear weapon and instead uses its nuclear enrichment programme to create civilian energy. It responded with a missile barrage of its own against Israel.
The US has long been an ardent ally of Israel, but in the early days of the conflict, Trump avoided committing the US to any direct involvement. That changed on June 22, when he sent seven B-2 bombers to drop “bunker-buster” munitions on three Iranian nuclear sites, including Fordow.
A ceasefire was declared a few days later.
But questions have endured about the efficacy of the US’s intervention. On Thursday, Hegseth and Caine sought to put those questions to rest with a forceful presentation.
Standing in front of a poster with images of Iran’s Fordow facility, Caine gave reporters a walkthrough of the bombs used in the attack, how the mission was carried out and who comprised the bomber crews.
He also played a video of one of the bunker-busting bombs in action.
“All six weapons at each vent at Fordow went exactly where they were intended to go,” Caine said.
He then offered a breakdown of what gave the US military confidence about the success of its mission.
“Here’s what we know following the attacks and the strikes on Fordow,” he said. “First, that the weapons were built, tested and loaded properly. Two: The weapons were released on speed and on parameter. Three: The weapons were all guided to their intended target and intended aim points. Four: The weapons functioned as designed, meaning they exploded.”
Hegseth, meanwhile, largely focused his comments on the media’s response. A former Fox News host, he criticised his fellow journalists for “hunting for scandals all the time” and failing to acknowledge “historic moments” under President Trump.
When pressed by a reporter about what had changed in their understanding of the June 22 strike, Hegseth reiterated the Trump administration’s position that sites like Fordow had been dealt a fatal blow.
“I could use the word obliterated. He could use defeat, destroyed, assess, all of those things. But ultimately, we’re here to clarify what these weapons are capable of,” Hegseth said.
“Anyone with two eyes, some ears and a brain can recognise that kind of firepower, with that specificity at that location and others is going to have a devastating effect.”
Hegseth and Trump both denied on Thursday that Iran could have moved its stockpile of enriched uranium before the US strikes.
“I’m not aware of any intelligence that I’ve reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be — moved or otherwise,” Hegseth said.
Ambiguity remains
Still, there have been conflicting reports about just how much damage was sustained by Iran’s nuclear programme.
The Financial Times on Thursday published a report saying European governments had assessed that Iran’s uranium stockpile had been redistributed to sites outside of Fordow before the attack.
In his first public comments since the war began, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei also said on Thursday that Trump overstated the results of the strikes.
“The American president exaggerated events in unusual ways,” Khamenei said, adding that the US “gained nothing from this war”.
By his account, the US bombing campaign “did nothing significant” to Iran’s nuclear facilities.
While Thursday’s briefing with Hegseth and Caine offered details about the weaponry used in the June 22 attacks, analysts say it lacked evidence to justify the Trump administration’s assertions.
“The presser on US strikes on Iran was an orchestrated narrative, very much focused on the storytelling,” said Al Jazeera correspondent Patty Culhane.
“I don’t think we know the actual facts of the matter yet. They say they detailed how many bombs were dropped, how they went through ventilation shafts, but they didn’t share any actual evidence that the facility was, in their words, obliterated.”
