WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Saturday (Jul 19) insisted that the US bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities “completely destroyed” the sites after a report said that some had largely survived.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump reiterated his frequent claim that “all three nuclear sites in Iran were completely destroyed and/or OBLITERATED”.
He said it would “take years to bring them back into service and, if Iran wanted to do so, they would be much better off starting anew, in three different locations”.
US bomb and missile attacks struck Iran’s controversial nuclear program on Jun 22, hitting the uranium enrichment facility at Fordow, south of Tehran, as well as nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz.
The bombings, carried out at the same time as an Israeli campaign against Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure, were billed by Washington as a knockout blow to a years-long covert effort to build nuclear weapons.
Iran insists it has not tried to weaponise its civilian nuclear power program.
