A senior Israeli official has revealed that Iran could potentially retrieve enriched uranium buried beneath one of the three facilities struck by US forces last month. The official, who declined to be named, said that reaching the enriched uranium at Isfahan would be extremely difficult and any attempt would prompt renewed Israeli strikes.
According to the official, intelligence indicates that much of Iran’s enriched uranium is buried at Isfahan, which was struck by submarine-launched cruise missiles during “Operation Midnight Hammer” on June 22. However, the official did not express concern about the assessment, noting that any Iranian attempt to recover the material would probably be detected.
The US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities have been the subject of much debate, with Donald Trump repeatedly claiming that the facilities were “obliterated.” However, some US intelligence agencies have taken a more cautious view. A leaked preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency report concluded that while all three sites – at Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan – were heavily damaged, they were not completely destroyed.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe told US lawmakers that the destruction of Iran’s only facility for producing metallic uranium effectively took away Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi said that while the three targeted Iranian sites were “destroyed to an important degree,” parts are “still standing.” “Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared, and there is nothing there,” Mr. Grossi said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Pezeshkian said that the facilities were “severely damaged” and that a full assessment is impossible for now. “Therefore we don’t have any access to them,” he said. The Israeli official’s assessment is that Iran’s nuclear program was set back two years.
The situation is complex, with different assessments of the damage caused by the US strikes. The White House has been adamant that the Iranian nuclear facilities were completely destroyed. “As President Trump has said many times, Operation Midnight Hammer totally obliterated Iran’s nuclear facilities,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement. “The entire world is safer thanks to his decisive leadership.”
However, the BBC has contacted the White House for further comment, and it remains to be seen how the situation will unfold. The international community is watching closely, with many concerned about the potential implications of Iran’s nuclear program.
In the midst of this uncertainty, one thing is clear: the situation is grave, and the stakes are high. As the world waits with bated breath, one can only hope that a peaceful resolution will be found, and the region will be spared further conflict.