Iran’s nuclear progress has been dealt a historic blow, but the regime may still retain the technical know-how and residual capabilities to reconstitute its program over time.
President Donald Trump declared last week that Iran’s underground nuclear facilities bombed by the U.S. were «obliterated», while adding the U.S. and Israeli strikes delivered «monumental damage to all nuclear sites in Iran.»
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed that message in a briefing, saying the «CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s nuclear program has been severely damaged by recent targeted strikes.»
Israeli intelligence sources told Fox News Digital that strikes on Natanz, Fordow and Esfahan caused severe and possibly irreversible damage to Iran’s known enrichment infrastructure. «We hit the heart of their capabilities», one official said.
But despite the overwhelming success of the mission, questions remain about what survived – and what might come next. Analysts warn that while Iran’s declared facilities have been largely destroyed, covert elements of the program may still exist, and enriched uranium stockpiles could resurface.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director Rafael Grossi said in an interview with CBS on Saturday that although «it’s clear that what happened in particular in Fordow, Natanz, [and] Isfahan—where Iran used to have, and still has to some degree, capabilities in terms of treatment, conversion, and enrichment of uranium—has been destroyed to an important degree», the threat remains.
Nuclear experts say that while Iran’s nuclear progress has been dealt a historic blow, the regime may still retain the technical know-how and residual capabilities to reconstitute its program over time – especially if it chooses to go dark.
A detailed assessment released Tuesday by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) found that Israel’s Operation Rising Lion, followed by U.
