WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday reiterated the Trump administration’s position that the American strikes destroyed Iran’s nuclear programme, while chastising the press for reporting on an initial intelligence report that said the attacks had only delayed Iran’s nuclear efforts by a few months.
Meanwhile, in his first public comments since the ceasefire, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed victory in the conflict, saying his nation had “delivered a hard slap to America’s face” and said the US was overstating the success of its attacks.
“With all that clamour, with all those claims, the Zionist regime, under the blows of the Islamic Republic, has almost collapsed and been crushed,” Khamenei said in a statement and a televised speech carried by state media and posted on his official X account.
The Supreme Leader hailed Iran’s “victory” over Israel and vowed never to surrender to the United States, while claiming that Washington had been dealt a “slap” after striking Iranian nuclear sites.
‘Nothing significant’
Khamenei said US President Donald Trump “exaggerated” the impact of US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
“The American president exaggerated events in unusual ways, and it turned out that he needed this exaggeration,” Khamenei said.
The United States “has gained nothing from this war,” he said, adding that American strikes “did nothing significant” to Iran’s nuclear facilities.
“The Islamic republic won, and in retaliation dealt a severe slap to the face of America,” he said, a reference to Iran’s missile launch targeting the largest US base in the Middle East.
The head of the UN atomic energy agency said US and Israeli strikes caused “enormous damage” to Iran’s nuclear sites and warned of a new crisis if Iran refused to allow his agency to inspect the facilities.
US President Donald Trump said he doesn’t think a nuclear deal with Iran is necessary after the strikes and said he believed the ceasefire between Israel and Iran would hold.
Of new nuclear talks, Trump said the US would be asking the Iranians for the same thing before Israel launched its attack. “We want no nuclear,” the president said, adding: “We destroyed the nuclear.”
‘Historically successful attack’
In a combative press conference Thursday, Hegseth argued that the bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran likely caused “severe damage”.
Hegseth didn’t deny the findings of that report, instead arguing that its assessments were “preliminary” and “low-confidence.” “This was a historically successful attack,” Hegseth said.
On Monday, CNN and multiple other outlets reported on an assessment by the Defence Intelligence Agency that the bombing set back Iran’s nuclear program by only months.
The reports noted that any assessments were still early and difficult to judge given that the bulk of each facility is far underground.
Alongside Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine gave a technical presentation on the massive ordnance penetrator — the 30,000-pound bomb used to hit the sites — and the ventilation shafts targeted themselves.
“The weapons all guided to their intended targets and to their intended aim points,” he said, also noting they exploded as planned.
Both Hegseth and Caine lauded the technical success of the mission, from the bombers who entered the airspace to the analysts who helped design the weapons.
But they wouldn’t comment directly on why the administration was now so confident that Iran’s nuclear programme was now “obliterated” despite saying the initial assessment was premature.
Hegseth pointed to external intelligence sources — from the Israeli government to the United Nations — when making his case.
He also mentioned a statement from CIA Director John Ratcliffe Wednesday night that argued Iran’s nuclear programme was “severely damaged,” relying on “new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method.”
Premature battle damage assessments
Hegseth also didn’t directly address questions about whether Iran moved highly enriched uranium, critical to a bomb, before the strikes.
“I’m not aware of any intelligence that I’ve reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be,” he said.
President Donald Trump and his Cabinet have attacked the journalists who reported on the initial DIA report.
Hegseth opened the Thursday press conference with a similar scolding, criticising outlets and one reporter by name.
The administration also delayed a classified briefing on Iran before Congress from Tuesday to Friday, over strong objections from Democratic lawmakers.
“It was obliteration, and you’ll see that,” Trump said of the strikes at this week’s NATO summit in the Netherlands.
Caine on Sunday was more measured, saying at a press conference that the attacks caused “extremely severe damage” and arguing that any battle damage assessments were premature.
The strike itself included more than 125 US aircraft, 75 precision weapons and 14 bunker-busting bombs in a stunning display of US military force. Overall, the operation targeted Iran’s three main nuclear sites: Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.
On Monday, Iran responded with a relatively limited retaliation on a US base in Qatar. No casualties were initially reported, and nearly all the ballistic missiles fired were intercepted, the Pentagon said.
Iran does not yet have the capability to build a nuclear weapon and claims its enrichment programme is solely for civilian purposes.
Israel and Iran, who had been trading attacks for almost two weeks, agreed to a ceasefire as of early this week.
