New US rating states

Washington – One of the three nuclear enrichment locations in Iran, which were hit by the United States last month, was largely destroyed and put the work back considerably. But the other two were not so badly damaged and may have only been deteriorated to a point where nuclear enrichment could resume in the coming months if Iran wishes. According to a recently caused destruction of the US destruction, five current and former US civil servants who were familiar with the evaluation shared NBC News.

Four of these people said that the assessment of determining the continuing efforts of the Trump government to determine the status of the Iranian nuclear program since the establishment of the facilities has been informed of some US legislators, Ministries and Allied.

NBC News has also learned that the US Central Command has developed a much more comprehensive plan for Iran that would have brought in three additional locations in an operation that had been extending for several weeks instead of a single night, according to a current US official and two former US official.

President Donald Trump was informed about this plan, but he was rejected because in contradiction to his foreign policy instincts to deprive the United States from conflicts abroad, not to dig deeper into them, as well as the possibility of a high number of victims on both sides, one of the current civil servants and one of the former civil servants.

“We were ready to go all the way in our options, but the president didn't want to,” said one of the sources with knowledge of the plan.

In a speech in the hours after her meeting, Trump described the strikes that he “directed a spectacular military success” and said: “The most important enrichment facilities of Iran were completely and completely wiped out.”

The reality that has so far been taken by intelligence seems to be more nuanced. And if the early knowledge about the damage caused by the Iranian nuclear program is more intelligence, the United States could be in a conflict again.

There were discussions in both the American and Israeli governments about whether additional strikes on the two less damaged institutions could be necessary if Iran soon does not agree to negotiations with the Trump administration via an nuclear agreement, or whether Iran is trying to rebuild at these locations, and one of the former civil servants said. Iran has long said that his nuclear program was purely peaceful, civilian purposes.

The latest assessment is a snapshot of the damage, the US strike in view of a secret service recording process, from which the administrative officers expected, are expected to continue for months. The ratings of the Iranian nuclear program according to the US strikes are expected to change over time. According to two of the current civil servants, the results suggest more damage in the course of the process than earlier reviews. For the time being, this evaluation remains the current thinking about the effects of the strikes, officials said.

“As the President said and experts checked, Operation Midnight Hammer fully wiped out the nuclear skills of the Iranian nuclear,” said the spokeswoman for the White House, Anna Kelly, NBC News in an explanation. “America and the world are safer thanks to its crucial action.”

In his own explanation, the chief -pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said: “The credibility of the fake news media is that of the current status of the Iranian nuclear facilities: destroyed in the dirt and will need years to recover. President Trump was clear and the American people understood: Iran's nuclear factory in Fordow, in Fordow.

He added: “The Midnight Hammer Operation was an important blow to Iran's nuclear skills thanks to the decisive action by President Trump and the bravery of all men and every woman in uniform who supported this mission.”

Destruction and deterrent

The US strikes aimed at three enrichment points in Iran: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan. U.S. officers believe that the attack on Fordo, which has long been seen as a critical part of the nuclear ambitions of Iran, attributed the Iranian enrichment functions to this location by up to two years for up to two years.

A large part of the administration public news about the strikes has focused on Fordo. In a Pentagon briefing, they held in response to the reporting on an evaluation of the initial secret services of the defense, which came to the conclusion that the Iranian nuclear program had only been covered for three to six months, for example Defense Minister Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine, the chair of the joint chief of staff, about the strike in Fordo, but not on the strike, and not in the strike. The strikes, in Natanz, and not in the strikers.

US officials knew before the air strikes that Iran enriched structures and enriched uranium in Natanz and Isfahan, who are expected to be the 30,000 pound GBU-57-bunker bombs in America, three of the sources said. These bombs, which had never been used before the strikes, were developed with the deep buried facilities that were carved into the side of a mountain in Fordo.

As early as 2023, however, there were indications that Iran tunnels dig in Natanz, which were under the GBU-57. In Isfahan there are also tunnels deep underground. The United States met the surface targets in Isfahan with Tomahawk rockets and did not drop GBU-57 there, but they used them at Natanz.

An American official directed NBC News on one of CIA director John Ratcliffe, the stipulated door door at the end of June said that the nuclear program of the Iranian nuclear program was “badly damaged” and that several important nuclear institutions were “completely destroyed”, as described by the administrative official. According to Ratcliffe, the only metal conversion facility in Natanz was destroyed to the point that it would take “years of reconstruction”, the official, who was authorized to describe some content of the classified briefing.

Ratcliffe also said that the intelligence community of the view is that the strikes buried the vast majority of the enriched uranium in Isfahan and Fordo and that it would therefore be extremely difficult for Iranians to extract them again, according to the civil servant, in order to resume the enrichment. The United States did not see any signs that Iran tried to dig out the facilities, said two officials.

As NBC News reports, the Israeli government is of the opinion that at least part of the Iranian highly submitted uranium is intact, but is buried under the establishment of Isfahan, a high -ranking Israeli government official who informed reporter in Washington last week. However, the official said that Israel keeps the material unreachable because it is too observed and new strikes will carry out if it believes that Iran tries to dig up the uranium. The official also said that Israel believes that Iran's nuclear program was returned for up to two years.

Even if the targeted Iranian core sites have not been completely destroyed, US officials and Republican supporters of the operation believe that this was a success because it changed the strategic equation for Iran. In her view, the regime in Tehran is now exposed to a credible danger of more air strikes if Israel and the United States believe that it is trying to revive the secret nuclear work.

After the end of the last month, whether he would bomb the Iran again if intelligence reports came to the conclusion that Iran can enrich the uranium at a level that concerns him, Trump said: “Sure. Without question.” Absolutely. ”

Iran's air defense has largely been destroyed, which was almost impossible for Iran to defend itself against further strikes for facilities in the future, said the US official.

“It was made clear that Iran no longer has [air defenses]The idea that you can easily rebuild something is ridiculous, ”said the official.

The “all -in” plan

Army General Erik Kurilla, the head of the US command, began this spring last autumn and this spring, began this spring to go “all-in” for Iran, according to a current US official and two former officials. This option was designed in such a way that Iran's nuclear skills “decimate” in the words of one of the former officials.

As part of the plan, the United States had reached six locations. Thinking was that the six websites would have to be hit repeatedly to cause the damage that is necessary to completely end the program, and the people familiar with thinking. The plan would also have concerned the focus on the air defense and the ballistic rocket functions of the Iranian rocket, and the planners predicted that this could lead to a high number of Iranian victims. US officials expected Iran to address American positions if this would take place, for example in Iraq and Syria, said a person familiar with the plan.

“It would be a lengthy air campaign,” said the person.

Some of the Trump administration officers believed that a deeper offensive option against Iran was a practical policy, said two of the former officials.

Trump was informed about the so-called all-in plan, but ultimately he was rejected because it would have needed a sustainable period of conflict.

The story

During his first term in 2018, Trump pulled the United States out of a 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers, which was negotiated during the Obama government. The agreement, which is known as a common comprehensive action plan, led the Iranian nuclear program strict limits for the relaxation of economic sanctions.

As part of the business, Iran was one year away from getting enough fissile material for an atomic bomb. After Trump was withdrawn from the agreement and sanctions were received again, Iran made restrictions on his uranium enrichment. According to the US officials and inspectors of the United Nations, the regime had enough fleece for about nine to ten bombs before the air strikes in June.

Since then, Trump has submitted a new agreement with Iran that would block it through the development of nuclear weapons. The indirect conversations between the USA and Iranian officials did not manage to complete a deal before Israel started air strikes on the nuclear facilities of Iran.

Iran has long denied that he wanted to build a nuclear weapon, a position that his foreign minister repeated in an interview with NBC News the day before the US strikes.