What senators are saying after being briefed on the US strikes on Iran

Emerging from a highly anticipated classified briefing on Thursday, Democratic and Republican senators were not in agreement over exactly how much US strikes on Iran set back that country’s nuclear program.

Emerging from a highly anticipated classified briefing on Thursday, Democratic and Republican senators were not in agreement over exactly how much US strikes on Iran set back that country’s nuclear program. Many Republicans said that they believe it will now take Iran years longer to build a nuclear weapon, though some acknowledged the threat is not completely neutralized. But Democrats said the picture is far less clear – and one said the US strikes set Iran back only by months. According to an early US defense intelligence assessment that was described by seven people briefed on it, the US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months. CIA Director John Ratcliffe said a day later, however, that “a body of credible intelligence” indicated Iran’s nuclear program was “severely damaged” by the US strikes and that “several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.” While it was not clear whether Ratcliffe was offering an official agency assessment or his view of the intelligence, it’s not unusual for intelligence agencies to disagree when making a judgment call about how to interpret raw reporting. The analysis of the damage to the sites and the impact of the strikes on Iran’s nuclear ambitions is also ongoing, and could change as more intelligence becomes available. But the early intel findings are at odds with President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that the strikes “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. “To me, it still appears that we have only set back the Iranian nuclear program by a handful of months. There’s no doubt there was damage done to the program. But the allegations that we have obliterated their program just don’t seem to stand up to reason,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut told reporters. “I just don’t think the president was telling the truth when he said the program was obliterated,” Murphy said, adding that he believed Iran still has “significant remaining capability.”