Tel Aviv [Israel], June 25: Following the White House’s early disclosure of a statement from the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC), Israel officially released its assessment on Wednesday, affirming significant destruction to Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility in a recent US strike.
According to the IAEC, “The devastating US strike on Fordow destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable.” The agency further asserted that combined US and Israeli attacks had set back Iran’s nuclear weapons program by “many years.”
The IAEC added, “The achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material.”
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin reinforced the assessment in a press briefing, stating, “We significantly damaged the nuclear program, and I can also say that we set it back by years — I repeat, years.”
The US strikes, carried out on Saturday night, targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. Fordow, deeply buried and heavily fortified, was believed to be invulnerable to most conventional weapons. However, the US reportedly deployed 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs, the only weapons capable of penetrating such hardened targets — and only American aircraft can carry them.
Speaking at the NATO summit in The Hague, US President Donald Trump reiterated, “Fordow was obliterated.” He added, “Israel’s guys went in there after the hit, and they said it was total obliteration.” However, Israeli officials denied that any Israeli agents had entered the Fordow site post-strike.
The current conflict escalated on June 13, when Israel launched preemptive strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, citing intelligence that Iran had reached a “point of no return” in its nuclear weapons ambitions. Israeli officials allege that Iran had enough fissile material to build up to 15 nuclear weapons, and had also launched a covert program to complete the components of a nuclear device.
The situation de-escalated with a US-brokered ceasefire that took effect on Tuesday. Over 12 days of fighting, Iranian missile attacks killed 28 Israelis and injured more than 3,000.
Despite Israel’s and Trump’s strong assertions of success, differing assessments — particularly from within the US intelligence community — continue to fuel debate about the actual impact of the strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.