LONDON — President Donald Trump once more claimed “complete obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear program in the course of the NATO summit within the Netherlands on Wednesday, dismissing an early Pentagon report suggesting the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Tehran’s amenities might have solely set its program again by a matter of months.
“I consider it was complete obliteration,” Trump advised reporters talking alongside NATO Secretary Basic Mark Rutte in The Hague, Netherlands.
A preliminary evaluation of the strikes by the Protection Intelligence Company and U.S. Central Command prompted questions because the efficacy of the operation. Two folks acquainted with the report advised ABC Information it urged the strikes did restricted injury and that Iran was capable of relocate extremely enriched uranium shares earlier than the strikes occurred.
“I consider they did not have an opportunity to get something out, as a result of we acted quick,” Trump stated. “If it might have taken two weeks, possibly. However it’s very exhausting to take away that form of materials, very exhausting and really harmful. Plus, they knew we had been coming, and in the event that they know we’re coming, they are not going to be down there.”
Iranian International Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei stated Wednesday that the nation’s nuclear amenities had been “badly broken,” as quoted by the Related Press.
This satellite tv for pc image by Planet Labs PBC exhibits Iran’s underground nuclear enrichment web site at Fordo following U.S. airstrikes concentrating on the ability, on June 22, 2025.
Planet Labs Pbc/AP
Trump insisted Iran’s nuclear program had been set again “principally a long time,” including, “It is gone for years.”
Requested if they might rebuild and whether or not the U.S. would strike once more, Trump stated that will be another person’s downside.
“I am not going to have to fret about that,” he stated. “It is gone for years, years, very robust to rebuild, as a result of the entire thing is collapsed. In different phrases, inside, it is all collapsed. No one can get in to see it, as a result of it is collapsed.”
Requested if he trusted U.S. intelligence, the president stated the preliminary report was “very inconclusive. The intelligence says we do not know, it might have been very extreme, that is what the intelligence says. So I assume that is appropriate, however I feel we are able to take the ‘we do not know.’ It was very extreme. It was obliteration.”
Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio additionally spoke in help of the president’s place, having accompanied Trump to The Hague.
“Given the 30,000 lbs of explosives and functionality of these munitions, it was devastation beneath Fordo,” Hegseth stated.
“Any evaluation that tells you it was one thing in any other case is speculating with different motives,” Hegseth continued. “And we all know that as a result of once you truly take a look at the report, by the way in which, it was a high secret report, it was preliminary, it was low confidence.”
Hegseth urged the leak of the report had “a political motive,” including, “We’re doing a leak investigation with the FBI proper now as a result of this data is for inside functions.”
Rubio additionally claimed that the leak of the preliminary report was politically motivated, saying that the assaults led to “full and complete obliteration.”
“However all this leaker stuff, these leakers are skilled stabbers,” he stated. “They exit they usually learn these items, after which they inform you what it says towards the legislation, however they characterize it for you in a approach that is completely false.”
The report prompted additional consternation amongst Trump’s opponents in Washington. Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Chris Coons advised ABC Information on the NATO summit it’s too quickly to find out the success of U.S. strikes, including that the latest spherical of preventing might have been averted if Trump had not withdrawn from the Iran nuclear deal in his first time period.
“The American public wants solutions for what what’s actually occurring,” Shaheen, rating member of the Senate International Relations Committee and senior member of the Senate Armed Providers Committee, stated. “If what we see is Iran’s nuclear program has not been obliterated, then we have to try to get Iran again to the negotiating desk,” she added.
Shaheen stated additional nuclear tensions are additionally potential, as Tehran might “be satisfied their race to get a nuclear weapon is much more necessary — given North Korea’s instance — and they’re going to do every part potential to get there as rapidly as potential.”
President Donald Trump speaks on the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 25, 2025.
Piroschka Van De Wouw/Reuters
In the meantime, Trump stated the ceasefire is “going very properly” regardless of Tuesday’s continued exchanges, which prompted him to lambast each Israel and Iran and to talk with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn him off additional assaults.
“Israel got here again yesterday,” he stated. “I used to be so happy with them, as a result of they got here again, , they went out as a result of they felt it was a violation. And technically they had been proper, nevertheless it simply would not have labored out very properly. They usually introduced the planes again.”
“They are not going to be preventing one another,” he added of Israel and Iran. “They’ve had it. They’ve had an enormous struggle, like two youngsters in a schoolyard. You realize, they struggle like hell. You’ll be able to’t cease them. Allow them to struggle for about two, three minutes. Then it is simpler to cease them.”
Trump stated the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear amenities on Saturday proved decisive. “That hit ended the struggle,” he stated, likening the U.S. atomic bomb assaults on Japan on the finish of World Warfare II.
“I do not need to use an instance of Hiroshima, I do not need to use an instance of Nagasaki, however that was primarily the identical factor that ended that struggle,” Trump stated. “If we did not take that out, they’d have been, they’d be preventing proper now,” he continued.
The president expressed optimism about the way forward for U.S. and Iranian relations.
“I feel we’ll find yourself having considerably of a relationship with Iran,” he stated. “I’ve had a relationship over the past 4 days. They agreed to the stop fireplace, and it was a really equal settlement. They each stated, that is sufficient. They each stated it.”
ABC Information’ Joe Simonetti, Luis Martinez, Anne Flaherty and Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
