An Israeli member of the Knesset is refuting claims made by President Donald Trump that one of Iran’s foremost nuclear weapons sites has been “obliterated” following strikes by B-2 bombers using bunker buster munitions earlier this week.
During the NATO summit on Wednesday morning, Trump asserted that intelligence agents had inspected the Fordow facility and declared its destruction. But MK Aryeh Deri rejected Trump’s claim that Israeli operatives had visited Iranian nuclear sites to assess the aftermath of the strikes.
“No one knows—because no one has visited there yet,” the ultra-Orthodox lawmaker told Haredi news site Kikar Hashabbat. “According to all the statistics, assessments, and satellite imagery, damage has been caused there.”
Meanwhile, responding to reports on the American intelligence assessments, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi told Ynet something different.
“The Iranian program to produce nuclear weapons has suffered a dramatic blow and will take many years to restore it,” Hanegbi said. “The largest uranium enrichment facility in Natanz has been completely destroyed.
“The reprocessing facility for metallic uranium in Isfahan has been completely destroyed. The nuclear facility in Arak, which was intended to enable a plutogenic pathway for weapons, has been destroyed. Regarding the extent of the damage caused by the American bombing of the underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordow, the estimates are that it will not be possible to restore it to normal operation over time,”