Forbes
Obliterated
“The sites we hit in Iran were totally destroyed, and everyone knows it,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, disputing “Fake News” he claims “would say anything different in order to try and demean, as much as possible—and even they say they were ‘pretty well destroyed!’”
High degree of confidence
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told ABC on Monday the U.S. is “confident” Iran’s nuclear program was “completely and totally obliterated,” noting there is a “high degree of confidence” the locations the U.S. strikes took place is where Iran stored its enriched uranium and that Iran “no longer [has] the capability … to threaten the world.”
Need to Verify
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi appeared to dispute Trump’s claims in a statement earlier Monday by suggesting the agency would need to verify damage to Iran’s underground Fordow facility, including whether the site’s uranium enrichment halls were impacted, though he noted the U.S. strikes likely caused “very significant” damage.
Too early to comment
On Sunday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said an assessment on damage to Iran’s nuclear sites was “still pending,” and Caine claimed it was “way too early for me to comment on what may or may not still be there.”
Going to do something
Vance, in an interview with ABC on Sunday, suggested the U.S. strikes only set back Iran’s potential to weaponize its uranium stockpile and said the U.S. was “going to work in the coming weeks to ensure that we do something with that fuel.”
Failed to target significant elements
Jeffrey Lewis, a professor of nonproliferation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, wrote on X he was “unimpressed” by the U.S. strikes while citing satellite images of the attacks, claiming the U.S. “failed to target significant elements of Iran’s nuclear materials and production infrastructure.”
What We Don’t Know
Whether Iran moved its uranium stockpile before the U.S. strikes. Grossi said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi notified him on June 13—the day Israel launched airstrikes at Iran—that Iran would adopt unspecified “special measures to protect our nuclear equipment and materials.” Iran is required to disclose whether its nuclear materials are transferred to another facility, Grossi said, though he did not specify whether Iran had done so. Grossi reportedly said he requested IAEA’s inspectors to return to Iran’s sites to “account for the stockpiles of uranium.”
He didn’t specify Iran had transferred materials, nor did he specify they had not moved/secured the materials. In other words a lie of omission? Entirely possible.
Operation Midnight Hammer
Trump announced Saturday the U.S. attacked Iran’s nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan. The mission, with the codename “Operation Midnight Hammer,” was a “precision operation” that targeted Iran’s nuclear capabilities, Hegseth said. Trump claimed Saturday that Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities were “completely and totally obliterated,” adding late Sunday Iran’s nuclear site sustained “monumental damage.”
My feeling/impression based on reports is this strike was not as successful as Trump claimed- So, no to obliteration. What do you think?