US President Donald Trump has revealed details of America’s strike on the Fordow nuclear facility in Iran.
“Israel is going to tell us very soon because Bibi is going to have people involved in that whole situation. We hear it was obliteration. It was a virtual obliteration,” Trump said, speaking at the NATO summit in The Hague.
He emphasized the scale of the attack, stating, “I believe it was total obliteration. I don't believe they had a chance to get anything out because we acted fast.” Trump added, “Israel is doing a report on it now. I understand. And I was told that they said it was total obliteration. You know, they have guys that go in there after the hit, and they say it was total obliteration.”
Trump claimed the Iranian nuclear program had been set back “basically decades because I don't think they will ever do it again... I think they're going to take their oil. They're going to have some missiles and they will have some defense. I think they've had it. They just went through hell... the last thing they want to do is enrich."
He warned that if Iran attempted to rebuild its nuclear program, the US would strike again, but insisted, “we're not going to have to worry about that. It's gone for years. Very tough to rebuild because the whole thing has collapsed.” Trump continued, “The last thing they want to do is enrich anything right now. They want to recover. And we won't let that happen. Number one. Militarily we won't.”
Reflecting on the ceasefire, Trump said, “I think we'll end up having somewhat of a relationship with Iran. I see it. Look. I've had a relationship over the last four days. They agreed to the ceasefire. And it was a very equal agreement. [Israel and Iran] both said 'that's enough.' They both said it.” He concluded, “They're not going to have a bomb and they're not going to enrich. We had a tremendous victory, a tremendous hit.”
Trump on Tuesday forcefully pushed back against media reports and leaked intelligence assessments suggesting that the US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities only temporarily set back Tehran’s nuclear program.
Trump took to Truth Social to denounce CNN and The New York Times, which, citing US intelligence sources, reported that the strikes on the Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites had not eliminated Iran’s core nuclear capabilities but likely delayed them by several months.
“Fake news CNN, together with the failing New York Times, have teamed up in an attempt to demean one of the most successful military strikes in history. The nuclear sites in Iran are completely destroyed!” Trump wrote.
Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, echoed the president’s confidence, stating, “We put 12 bunker buster bombs on Fordow. There’s no doubt that it breached the canopy... and there’s no doubt that it was obliterated. So, the reporting out there that in some way suggests that we did not achieve the objective is just completely preposterous!”
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also dismissed the leaks, insisting, “Our bombing campaign obliterated Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons. Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target—and worked perfectly. The impact of those bombs is buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran; so anyone who says the bombs were not devastating is just trying to undermine the President and the successful mission.”
Acting US envoy to the United Nations Dorothy Shea told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that the American strikes "effectively fulfilled our narrow objective: to degrade Iran's capacity to produce a nuclear weapon," according to Reuters.
"These strikes—in accordance with the inherent right to collective self-defense, consistent with the U.N. Charter—aimed to mitigate the threat posed by Iran to Israel, the region and to, more broadly, international peace and security," said Shea.
"I think it's still early to assess all the strikes. We know we were able to push back the (nuclear) program. We were able to remove the imminent threat that we had," Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon told reporters on Tuesday.
Preliminary evaluations by the Defense Intelligence Agency, as reported by CNN and other media outlets, suggest that although recent US airstrikes caused significant destruction at Iran’s Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities, the country’s enriched uranium reserves remain untouched and the majority of its centrifuges were not damaged. According to officials, the strikes are expected to postpone Iran’s nuclear program by only a few months.
The White House has challenged these conclusions, labeling the leaked report as “categorically incorrect.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Politico on Wednesday that Iran is "much further away from a nuclear weapon" following the US strikes.
Speaking at the NATO summit, Rubio emphasized that "significant, very significant, substantial damage was done to a variety of different components" of Iran’s nuclear program and dismissed media reports suggesting only a short delay as "false" and incomplete.
He stated, "The key takeaway is that they are significantly further from acquiring a nuclear weapon today than they were prior to the president’s decisive action," adding that further details about the damage are still emerging.
Witkoff described ongoing US-Iran talks as “promising,” expressing hope for a long-term peace agreement. “We are already talking to each other, not just directly but also through interlocutors. I think that the conversations are promising. We are hopeful that we can have a long-term peace agreement that resurrects Iran,” Witkoff said on Tuesday.
