No outsider can visit Iran's facilities for atomic research. The assessments of how badly damaged they are after the US bombings therefore differ.
I think it's about total destruction, says President Trump about the US bombing raids against the facilities Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan last weekend.
After previously talking about the atomic program being delayed by several years, Trump is now talking about "decades" as well.
They will not get any bomb, he states.
Destroyed entrances
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei was pressed on Wednesday about the effects of the bombings, and acknowledged that it is about "severe damage", according to the news agency AP. He does not want to go into details, but emphasizes that the important thing is Iran's right to peaceful atomic energy.
And Iran is ready to hold on to that right under all circumstances, he says according to Al Jazeera.
CNN and other American media have – with reference to sources close to a classified initial assessment within the Pentagon – reported that neither Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium nor the centrifuges used for enrichment are considered to have been destroyed in the attacks. The entrances to two of the facilities are said to have been destroyed, but the underground buildings are not considered to have collapsed, according to a source for The New York Times.
One of the sources states that the conclusion of the early assessment is that the attack on the three facilities has only managed to set back Iran's atomic program a few months.
"Too early to determine"
Even Trump's envoy claims that it is completely wrong.
All three of these had most, if not all, centrifuges damaged or destroyed in a way that will make it almost impossible for them to revive the program, says Witkoff to Fox News.
And the Israeli military spokesman Effie Defrin agrees – albeit with reservations.
We have achieved all the goals of the operation, as defined for us, even better than we thought, he says according to Israeli media.
But it's too early to determine. We are investigating the results of the attack on different parts of the atomic program.
