{"id":98882,"date":"2026-05-05T14:34:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T14:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/98882\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T14:34:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T14:34:17","slug":"us-intelligence-memo-says-trumps-extended-iran-war-has-done-little-to-slow-the-nuclear-capabilities-in-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/98882\/","title":{"rendered":"US intelligence memo says Trump\u2019s extended Iran war has done little to slow the nuclear capabilities in the country"},"content":{"rendered":"

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U.S. intelligence assessments suggest that President Donald Trump\u2019s war in Iran<\/a> has done little to slow the country\u2019s nuclear capabilities, according to a report.<\/p>\n

Ensuring that Iran cannot build a nuclear weapon was one of the key objectives laid out by Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth <\/a>at the beginning of the war, which started on February 28. <\/p>\n

Two months on, Tehran\u2019s nuclear program<\/a> remains broadly unchanged since last year\u2019s U.S. attack, according to Reuters<\/a> news agency, citing intelligence sources familiar with the matter. <\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019<\/a>s Operation Midnight Hammer campaign in June 2025 pushed the timeline of the country\u2019s nuclear capabilities back by nine months to a year, and it remains broadly unchanged now as the U.S. military has largely avoided striking nuclear targets this time, according to Reuters. <\/p>\n

Before last year\u2019s 12-day war, U.S. intelligence agencies estimated that Iran could produce enough bomb-grade uranium to build a bomb in around three to six months, according to the outlet. <\/p>\n

\"U.S.U.S. intelligence assessments suggest that President Donald Trump\u2019s war in Iran has done little to slow the country\u2019s nuclear capabilities, according to a report (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Hegseth was asked whether the intelligence assessment was \u201cwrong\u201d at a Pentagon press conference Tuesday and dismissed the report as \u201cspeculation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t discuss the specifics about intel\u2026 I can\u2019t confirm or deny whether that is correct,\u201d Hegseth said, and touted Operation Midnight Hammer for essentially \u201csetting back\u201d Iran\u2019s nuclear program. <\/p>\n

The White House issued a similar statement in response to the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Operation Midnight Hammer obliterated Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities, Operation Epic Fury built on this success by decimating Iran\u2019s defense industrial base that they once leveraged as a protective shield around their pursuit of a nuclear weapon,\u201d White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told Reuters.<\/p>\n

\"DefenseDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked whether the intelligence assessment was \u2018wrong\u2019 at a Pentagon press conference Tuesday and dismissed the report as \u2018speculation\u2019 (Reuters)<\/p>\n

Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, told the Senate on March 18 there was no evidence that Iran had tried to rebuild the bombed facilities before Trump ordered fresh strikes in February.<\/p>\n

Last week, during nine hours of congressional testimony<\/a>, Hegseth told lawmakers that despite Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran \u201chad not given up their nuclear ambitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told Hegseth that the war has \u201cleft us at exactly the same place we were before.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to start this war, you just said 60 days ago, because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat,\u201d Smith said. \u201cNow you\u2019re saying that it was completely obliterated?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[34,26000,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-98882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-iran","9":"tag-top-picture","10":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116522468542458966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}