The United States believes that its strikes against Iran have set back the Islamic Republic's nuclear program by two years.
This was stated at a briefing for journalists by the US Deputy Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Sean Parnell.
„That is the assessment of the intelligence community in the US Department of Defense. I think we set them back two years“, Parnell said.
As CNN reported earlier, citing its own sources, the US intelligence community believes that the US strikes against Iran have not led to the destruction of the main components of the Islamic Republic's nuclear program. Preliminary intelligence estimates suggest the attack may have only delayed Tehran's acquisition of a nuclear bomb by several months, the network said.
According to its sources, the assessment was made by officials at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) based on an analysis conducted by U.S. Central Command after the U.S. strikes. Iran's enriched uranium stockpile was not destroyed, and its centrifuges remained largely "undamaged," the source told CNN.
The White House said CNN's claims were false and called the leak a "blatant attempt to humiliate President" Donald Trump.