Iran Says Nuclear Facilities ‘Badly Damaged’ by US Strikes

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(Bloomberg) — Iran said its nuclear installations were “badly damaged” by US airstrikes, the first such comments by Tehran as debate grows over how much the bombardment managed to dent the Islamic Republic’s atomic program.  

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“Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told Al Jazeera TV in an interview on Wednesday. 

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Baghaei did not give further details and said authorities were still assessing the situation on the ground. He added that the US attacks were a “detrimental blow” to international law and the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to which Iran is a signatory. 

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The comments are the first time an Iranian official has addressed the scope of damage caused by the June 22 strikes which involved US attacks on three nuclear facilities in Iran using more than a dozen 30,000-pound bombs.  

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The comments came hours after US President Donald Trump disputed a US intelligence report that said the attacks had limited impact on Iran’s nuclear program below ground. 

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An assessment from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency said the bombing likely didn’t cripple the core components stored underground including centrifuges, according to people familiar with its contents. 

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Commenting on the intelligence leak, Trump said the report was “very inconclusive” but that he still believed the sites were demolished.

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“The intelligence says we don’t know,” he told reporters at a NATO summit in the Hague. “It could have been very severe. That’s what the intelligence says. So I guess that’s correct, but I think we can take that we don’t know. It was very severe. It was obliteration.”

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International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi has said “very significant damage is expected to have occurred” at Fordow, Iran’s main uranium enrichment site which is built under a mountain. The IAEA has not had access to Iran since Israel started attacking Iran on June 13.

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Read More Satellite Images Suggest US Avoided Iran’s Nuclear Reactors 

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Satellite images show that US military planners were careful not to hit reactors at the Isfahan research facility which appears to have been intentionally left untouched, according to four senior officials in Vienna. 

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The Israel Atomic Energy Commission said the US strikes on Iran’s Fordow nuclear site rendered the enrichment facility inoperable. It said both Israeli and US attacks set back the country’s ability to develop its nuclear weapons by “many years.” 

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Trump brokered a ceasefire to end the 12-day war between Israel and Iran that appeared to be holding on Wednesday. The president had lashed out at both countries a day earlier, and particularly Israel, over what he said were early violations of the truce. Both nations have said they’ll honor the ceasefire provided their enemy does the same. 

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—With assistance from Kateryna Kadabashy.

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(Updates with more details, context and background.)

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