Trump grapples for upper hand in debate over damage caused by U.S. strikes on Iran

THE HAGUE Netherlands AP President Donald Trump on Wednesday rejected an early intelligence assessment that U S strikes inflicted only a marginal setback on Iran s nuclear undertaking insisting that his country s spies did not have the full picture and defending his own swift conclusion that American bombs and missiles delivered a crushing blow This was a devastating attack and it knocked them for a loop Trump declared as his administration scrambled to sponsorship his proposes made only hours after the attack that Iranian nuclear facilities were absolutely and fully obliterated The issue dominated Trump s attendance at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization s annual summit in the Netherlands which was otherwise focused on European protection The White House highlighted an Israeli report that Iran s nuclear efforts were delayed by years much longer than the sparse months determined by American intelligence A spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry also reported the facilities has suffered vital damage But those comments fell short of Trump s hyperbole and did little to suggest that U S strikes had eliminated the threat of Iran evolving a nuclear weapon Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaking in an interview with Politico limited his own assessment to saying Iran was much further away from a nuclear weapon in the current era than they were before the president took this bold action Drawing reliable conclusions about the impact of the U S strikes remains tough especially only days after they took place That makes the issue a breeding ground for competing alleges that could determine how American voters view Trump s risky decision to join Israel s attacks on Iran Jeffrey Lewis a professor of nonproliferation at the Middlebury Institute mentioned Trump was trying to have it both options If it s too early to know why is Trump saying it s obliterated he mentioned Either it s too early to know or you know Also at stake are Trump s next initiatives in the Middle East where diplomatic efforts could be required to prevent Iran from rebuilding its nuclear effort Trump mentioned U S and Iranian authorities would meet soon resuming a dialogue that was interrupted by nearly two weeks of war even as he suggested that negotiations were no longer necessary I don t care if I have an agreement or not Trump disclosed because Iran was too badly damaged to even consider rebuilding its project They re not going to be doing it anyway They ve had it Iran maintains that its atomic ambitions are for peaceful purposes while U S and Israeli leaders have described the country s nuclear undertaking as the precursor to obtaining a nuclear weapon The episode has triggered specific of Trump s longstanding vendettas against leaks and intelligence agents whom he has often viewed as a part of a deep state dedicated to undermining his agenda He also lashed out at media outlets that stated on the classified assessment describing them as scum and disgusting The intelligence assessment was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency which is part of the Pentagon Out of all the country s spy services it s usually the fastest on the draw to produce preliminary results reported Frank Montoya a former counterintelligence leader They have to respond speedily to what the war fighters are looking for but those preliminary assessments are still based on information that s out there Montoya declared Leon Panetta who held top national prevention roles under President Barack Obama revealed it s too soon to have a more complete understanding of the strikes impact Bottom line is that s going to take an extended period of time at least a number of weeks before we have a full assessment of the damage done by the attack Panetta noted Trump explained questioning the effectiveness of the strikes was disrespectful to the military which flew stealth bombers halfway around the world to attack the nuclear facilities with weapons designed to penetrate deep underground The reports he reported were very unfair to the pilots who risked their lives for our country He described the American attack as a definitive conclusion to what he s dubbed the -day war much like the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki heralded the end of World War II That ended that war he disclosed This ended the war During a news conference Trump briefly ceded the stage to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who also lashed out at the media There s a reason the president calls out the fake news for what it is he mentioned Hegseth noted reporters were using a leaked intelligence assessment to politically damage Trump They want to spin it to try to make him look bad he explained Trump pointed to satellite photos that indicated the area around the nuclear facilities was burned black and he disclosed that underground tunnels where uranium was enriched and stored were all collapsed He also suggested that Israel had sources on the ground in Iran saying they have guys that go in there after the hit to evaluate the damage The bombing rendered the enrichment facility inoperable according to a comment distributed by the White House and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu The American strikes combined with Israeli strikes on other elements of Iran s military nuclear campaign have set back Iran s ability to develop nuclear weapons by plenty of years the Israel Atomic Ability Commission revealed In addition Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei stated Al Jazeera that there was key damage from U S bombers Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged that s for sure he revealed One critical question is whether enriched uranium which could be developed into fuel for a nuclear bomb was moved out of facilities before the U S strikes I believe they didn t have a chance to get anything out because we acted fast Trump announced He added that it s very hard to move that kind of material and very dangerous Classified briefings for lawmakers originally scheduled for Tuesday are now expected to take place Thursday and Friday