Early intel assessment says Iran’s nuclear program was only set back ‘a few months’ : NPR

A satellite image of the Fordo nuclear site of Iran shows clusters of new craters probably caused by the American bunker bombs abandoned during the weekend after the orders of President Trump.

Satellite image © 2025 Maxar Technologies

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Satellite image © 2025 Maxar Technologies

An American official who was not authorized to speak publicly confirmed the first intelligence assessments by the Defense Intelligence Agency saying that the massive air campaign of the United States against three Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday evening did not “erased” “the Iran nuclear enrichment program as President Trump claimed, but rather defined it” a few months “.

CNN published news for the DIA evaluation for the first time.

The official told NPR that military officials had provided an early assessment of the Intel to select senators – notably Mark Warner from Virginia, the main democrat of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“I have a lot of questions for this administration,” said Warner Well -considered. “What are the next steps? How do we assure ourselves that there is no more race in Iran to a dirty bomb? These are questions to which we and frankly, the American people, deserve answers.”

The complete Senate was due to obtain a classified administration briefing on Tuesday afternoon, but it was canceled and moved later in the week.

The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized the CNN report, saying on social networks that he was “badly flat” and arguing that a key nuclear installation had been destroyed. She said that the flight was a “clear attempt to lower President Trump”.

The White House did not immediately respond to the request for NPR comments.

The evaluation comes less than a day after the ceasefire declared by Trump between Israel and Iran has entered into force, the two parties agreeing to end the fighting. Israel has repeatedly declared that his objective in the war had been to stop the Iranian nuclear program and prevent him from making a nuclear weapon – a goal for a long time by the United States

Speaking on Air Force One earlier Tuesday, Trump maintained that the goal had been achieved.

“They will not have enrichment and they will not have a nuclear weapon,” he said, speaking of Iran. “And I will tell you, the last thing in mind is nuclear weapons. They don’t even want to think of nuclear.”

But Iran officials directly contradicted this.

In a press release on X in Farsi, Iranian President of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that Iran “would completely ignore” Israeli demands to stop enriching uranium, a key element of a nuclear weapon. He said Iran will continue to carry out their own interests.

The head of the Iranian atomic energy agency Hamad Eslami also seemed to confirm that, saying to a semi-official Iranian news agency that they always evaluated the damage of the attacks on Saturday evening, but had prepared in advance. “Our plan is to allow no interruption of the production and service process,” he said.

The United States used massive bunker bombs on Saturday to target three of the main Iranian nuclear installations, including one called Fordo, built at the bottom of a mountain.

Speaking at the White House after these strikes, Trump called strikes “spectacular military success”.

“The main Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and completely erased,” he said.

But the US official of the NPR has maintained, said that intelligence assessment concluded that there had been damage “limited” to critical infrastructure in the installation of Fordo in particular.

The independent experts to which NPR spoke the day after the United States strikes arrived at similar conclusions, after having analyzed the commercial satellite imagery, saying that the Iranian nuclear company is far from destroyed.

“In the end, there are really important things that have not been affected,” said Jeffrey Lewis, professor at the Institute of International Studies in Middlebury in Monterey, who follows Iranian nuclear installations. “If it ends here, it’s a really incomplete strike.”

Experts have long warned that Iran’s nuclear capacity is not only in its facilities, but also in its in -depth knowledge – something much more difficult to attack.

“The simple fact is that Israel was never going to be able to eliminate Iran’s ability to fully build nuclear weapons if Iranians choose to do so,” said Kenneth Pollack, vice-president of politics at the East Institute Middle. “Knowledge is simply too widespread in the Iranian system.”

Tom Bowman of NPR contributed to this Washington report, DC