Amid claims by former President Donald Trump that U.S. airstrikes had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities, an Israeli Knesset member, Aryeh Deri, has contradicted these assertions, stating no Israeli operatives have yet visited the Fordow facility. While Deri acknowledged satellite images suggest damage, he emphasized the absence of on-the-ground verification. Trump, speaking at the NATO summit, insisted that Israeli agents had inspected Fordow and confirmed its destruction, but conflicting reports and leaked intelligence assessments indicate uncertainty about the extent of the damage. National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi offered a more tempered view, saying Iran’s nuclear program had suffered significant setbacks, particularly at sites like Natanz, Isfahan, and Arak, where facilities for uranium enrichment and plutonium development were reportedly destroyed.
Despite official optimism, doubts persist. Trump and other officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, defended the operation’s effectiveness, asserting it delayed Iran’s nuclear ambitions by years. However, leaked Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessments reportedly offered only “low confidence” in the extent of the damage. The leak prompted outrage within the administration, with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff calling it treasonous and Hegseth confirming an FBI investigation is underway. Amid all this, the credibility of the administration’s claims remains under scrutiny, as conflicting narratives emerge from Israeli and American sources, raising questions about transparency, intelligence reliability, and political motivations behind public declarations of success in what may still be an unresolved geopolitical and military flashpoint.
