Iran’s nuclear facilities have been “blown up to kingdom come,” U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday.
“We destroyed the nuclear. In other words, that’s destroyed. I said Iran will not have nuclear. We blew it up. It’s blown up to kingdom come,” Trump said, speaking at the NATO summit at The Hague in the Netherlands.
He added, “It was very, very successful. It was called obliteration. No other military on earth could have done it. And now this incredible exercise of American strength has paved the way for peace with a historic ceasefire agreement late Monday. And we call it the 12 Day War.”
Trump’s comments come after U.S. media, including The Associated Press, reported on a U.S. intelligence report that suggests Iran’s nuclear program has been set back only a few months after U.S. strikes.
It was not “completely and fully obliterated” as Trump has previously said, according to two people familiar with the early assessment quoted by The Associated Press.
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“If you take a look at the pictures, if you take a look how it’s all blackened, the fire and brimstone is all underground because it’s granite and it’s all underground. You don’t show it. But even there, with all of that being said, the whole area for 75 yards around the hole where it (U.S. missiles) hit is black with fire,” Trump said on Wednesday.
The report from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency on Monday contradicts statements from Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the status of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
According to the people, the report found that while the Sunday strikes at the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites did significant damage, the facilities were not totally destroyed. The people were not authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press.
Trump added that the U.S. will be speaking with the Iranian side soon.
“We’re going to talk to them next week with Iran. We may sign an agreement,” he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “That’ll depend on Iran’s willingness not just to engage in peace, but to negotiate directly with the United States, not through some third country or fourth country.”
— With files from The Associated Press
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