CIA says it has evidence Iran’s nuclear program was ‘severely damaged’ as assessments of US strikes’ impact continue

CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Wednesday said in a statement that the agency had obtained “a body of credible evidence [that] indicates Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged” by recent strikes, underscoring a broad intelligence community effort is ongoing to determine the impact of the US strikes on three of the country’s nuclear sites on Saturday.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Wednesday said in a statement that the agency had obtained “a body of credible evidence [that] indicates Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged” by recent strikes, underscoring a broad intelligence community effort is ongoing to determine the impact of the US strikes on three of the country’s nuclear sites on Saturday. Without providing details, Ratcliffe said the CIA’s evidence included “new intelligence from a historically reliable source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.” It was not clear whether Ratcliffe was offering an official agency assessment or his view of the intelligence. The statement came a day after an initial analysis by the Defense Intelligence Agency that suggested that strikes by the US on Saturday did not destroy some key components of Iran’s nuclear program and likely only set back Tehran’s nuclear ambitions by a matter of months was reported by CNN and other outlets. The White House has pushed back on that assessment, which cast doubt on President Donald Trump’s claims that the strikes “obliterated” Iran’s ability to produce a weapon, calling it “wrong.” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also posted on X on Wednesday that “new intelligence” supported the notion that Iran’s nuclear facilities were “destroyed” in the strikes.