Preliminary intelligence indicates Iran’s uranium remains intact: FT
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The news: Early intelligence assessments given to European governments indicate that Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile remains intact after the US carried out strikes on key nuclear targets, two officials told the Financial Times.
The context: Sources told the FT that the intelligence suggested the country’s enriched uranium stockpile (which is close to weapons-grade level), was not concentrated in the Fordow facility when the US carried out strikes on the weekend.
The intelligence said that the uranium had been moved to other locations ahead of the strikes. FT sources said that EU governments are still waiting to receive a full intelligence report on the extent of damage to Iran’s Fordow nuclear site, built deep underground, which was hit with US bunker-buster bombs. Fordow was the key location for Iran’s uranium enrichment activities.
US President Donald Trump and his administration have insisted that the bombing completely destroyed the targets, “obliterating” Iran’s entire nuclear program. However, a US intelligence assessment that was leaked to US media on Wednesday said that the strikes had only set back Iran’s nuclear program by a matter of months. The Pentagon has launched a probe into the leaking of the Iran strike intelligence leak.
Earlier on Thursday, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth held a joint press briefing at the Pentagon alongside Gen Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to double down on the position that the US strikes had been a “resounding success” and criticise the media for questioning reports to the contrary.
During his briefing Hegseth had referred to the intelligence leak as “half-truths” and referring to reports that uranium had been moved out of the sites by Iran, he was “not aware of any intelligence that I’ve reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be, moved or otherwise.”
Hegseth used the opportunity to blast the media for its coverage of the attacks: “Because you cheer against Trump so hard — in your DNA and in your blood, cheer against Trump — because you want him not to be successful so bad, you have to cheer against the efficacy of these strikes,” Hegseth said. “You have to hope maybe they weren’t effective.”
Speaking for the first time on Thursday since the weekend strikes, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the bombing on the country’s nuclear sites “did not achieve anything” and that Trump had “exaggerated” their impact. Khamenei claimed victory in the war with Israel and that the country had “delivered a harsh slap to America’s face.”
Iranian officials have previously said that they moved their uranium stockpile before the US bombing.
