Despite the Trump administration’s claims of “obliteration,” U.S. officials have found that the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has caused little long-term damage to Iran’s nuclear capabilities. According to a report in Reuters, U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that the timeline Iran would supposedly require to build a nuclear bomb remains at around one year—the same as had been assessed following last June’s “Midnight Hammer” attack by U.S. bombers.
“The assessments of Tehran’s nuclear program remain broadly unchanged even after two months of a war,” the article reports. The rationale behind this is that, even though Israel hit some of Iran’s nuclear facilities, U.S. strikes have primarily focused on conventional military targets and its political leadership, while key parts of the country’s nuclear capabilities remain too deep underground to be affected. This includes the infamous 440 kilograms of highly-enriched uranium.
