Trump likens Iran strikes to Hiroshima to deny report questioning its success

An abrupt ceasefire between Iran and Israel, and the claim made by US President Donald Trump that the US strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities had completely destroyed Iran’s capacity to enrich nuclear weapons, has been reiterated by him, as he insisted on it despite a US intelligence report stating that the strike only delayed the process.

Speaking at The Hague, Trump drew a parallel between the strikes and America’s use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended the Second World War, insisting that the action prevented further conflict and forced peace.

The initial assessment, conducted by the Defence Intelligence Agency and based on early battle damage reports from US Central Command, indicates that two of the targeted sites were not destroyed and that Iran’s nuclear programme is likely only set back by a few months.

According to the report, centrifuges and other vital components at the facilities can be restarted within a short time, and much of Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile had already been moved to undisclosed locations before the strikes occurred.

Despite Trump’s declaration that the enrichment sites at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan had been obliterated, the intelligence findings suggest that Fordow, a deeply buried and heavily fortified site beneath the Zagros Mountains, sustained less damage than expected.

The facility had long been regarded as resistant even to the US Air Force’s 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs, and Pentagon briefings from earlier this year reportedly warned that conventional weapons would not fully penetrate it.

The operation, carried out by B2 bombers dropping GBU-57 bombs on Fordow and Natanz, and Tomahawk missiles launched from a US Navy submarine targeting Isfahan, was publicly described by top officials as a military success.

However, more cautious remarks from military leadership suggested that while significant damage was inflicted, the final damage assessment is still pending, and the full extent of the operation’s effectiveness remains uncertain.

The classified assessment’s emergence has reportedly angered Trump, who accused the media of downplaying the strike’s success, while the White House dismissed the leak as a deliberate attempt to undermine both the president and the military.

Meanwhile, concerns have been raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which announced it could no longer account for Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, underscoring fears that critical elements of the programme may have been preserved or relocated.