WASHINGTON: The Pentagon said on Wednesday (Jul 2) that United States strikes 10 days ago had degraded Iran’s nuclear programme by up to two years, suggesting the US military operation likely achieved its goals despite a far more cautious initial assessment that leaked to the public.
Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, offered the figure at a briefing to reporters, adding that the official estimate was “probably closer to two years”. Parnell did not provide evidence to back up his assessment.
“We have degraded their programme by one to two years, at least intel assessments inside the Department (of Defense) assess that,” Parnell told a news briefing.
US military bombers carried out strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities on Jun 22 using more than a dozen 13,600-kg bunker-buster bombs and more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles.
The evolving US intelligence about the impact of the strikes is being closely watched, after President Donald Trump said almost immediately after they took place that Iran’s programme had been obliterated, language echoed by Parnell at Wednesday’s briefing.
Such conclusions often take the US intelligence community weeks or more to determine.
“All of the intelligence that we’ve seen (has) led us to believe that Iran’s – those facilities especially, have been completely obliterated,” Parnell said.
