Trump Admits to Some Doubt Over Scale of Damage to Iran's Nuclear Sites

Donald Trump and the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, have admitted to some doubt over the scale of the damage inflicted on Iran's nuclear sites by US bombing, after a leaked Pentagon assessment said the Iranian programme had been set back by only a few months.

- Julian Borger

"The intelligence was very inconclusive," Trump told journalists at a Nato summit in The Hague, expressing uncertainty for the first time after several days of emphatic declarations that the destruction had been total. "The intelligence says we don't know. It could've been very severe. That's what the intelligence suggests."

The president then appeared to revert to his claim that "it was very severe. There was obliteration." Later in the day, he went on to claim that was the conclusion from "collected intelligence", and that the Iranian programme had been set back "decades".

Over the course of the day, Trump's claims became more far-reaching, even rejecting reports from the nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), that Iran's 400kg stock of 60% enriched uranium could no longer be accounted for, and appeared to have been moved. Earlier in the week, Vice President JD Vance had appeared to admit the US did not know where the enriched uranium was, saying it would be a subject of discussions with the Iranians.