Asked during a White House news conference last week whether he would consider striking Iran again if the U.S. intelligence community found the country reassembling its nuclear program, President Donald Trump answered unequivocally: “Without question.” Trump’s remarks were as ominous as the query posed to him, for it suggests that despite the U.S. bombing campaign against Tehran’s three major nuclear installations on June 22, the Iranians retain the resources, equipment and enriched uranium to continue their work.
Indeed, how much damage occurred at those installations has transformed into a mini-scandal of sorts. Different people are offering different interpretations of what was hit, how effective the military operation was and whether Tehran was able to squirrel away some of its uranium stockpile before U.S. bombs started falling. Ultimately, it’s too early for any definitive answers because a full damage assessment is still in the works, but the Trump administration nevertheless insists everything Washington wanted to hit was destroyed.
Preliminary analysis from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence shop, paints a more pessimistic picture, as do some European countries. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mariano Grossi, whose job it is to account for all of this materiel, has leaned toward a more cautious conclusion, telling CBS News over the weekend that Iran could theoretically start enriching again in a matter of months.
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