us-strikes-pushed-back-iran-s-nuclear-plan-by-two-years-pentagon

The United States has claimed that its military strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure have set back Tehran’s weapons programme by at least two years, despite doubts over the scale of damage.

 

US Defence Department spokesperson Sean Parnell said on Wednesday that “all of the nuclear facilities targeted by the US forces have been destroyed,” describing the outcome as a significant disruption. “We have pushed back their programme by one or two years at least,” he added.

Chief DoD Spokesman Sean Parnell:
“The US strikes against Iran set back its nuclear program by one to two years,..”
Parnell added that “All of the intelligence that we’ve seen has led us to believe that Iran’s facilities… have been completely obliterated,..”. pic.twitter.com/FC5z2vqTX0

— SeKooh (@3KooH) July 2, 2025

The Pentagon’s announcement comes in support of President Donald Trump’s earlier statement that the strikes had “obliterated facilities like nobody’s ever seen before,” following a campaign that drew sharp international scrutiny.

 

Initial assessments by US intelligence agencies had, however, indicated limited damage, with some officials suggesting that core components of the nuclear programme remained intact and that no radioactive leakage had been detected, an observation echoed by regional allies.

Also read: US airstrikes failed to destroy Iran’s nuclear sites: Intel

 

Speculation around the true impact of the operation has persisted since the strikes, with no independent verification available to confirm the extent of the damage. While unnamed Iranian officials have admitted that key facilities were affected by the joint US-Israeli offensive, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed Trump’s declarations as “exaggerated”.

 

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has so far not been granted full access to evaluate the sites in question. “We don’t know where this material could be or if part of it could have been under the attack during those 12 days,” the agency’s Director-General said last week.

 

The US State Department on Wednesday urged Tehran to resume cooperation with the IAEA. “It is … unacceptable that Iran chose to suspend cooperation with the IAEA at a time when it has a window of opportunity to reverse course and choose a path of peace and prosperity,” said spokesperson Tammy Bruce.

 

The absence of verifiable international access continues to cast a long shadow over competing claims, with concerns mounting that any disruption to Iran’s nuclear development may prove temporary.