CIA Director John Ratcliffe receives updates in the Situation Room of the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S. He said a body of credible intelligence indicated that Iran’s nuclear program was severely damaged by recent U.S. strikes.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe on Wednesday (June 25, 2025) said a body of credible intelligence indicated that Iran’s nuclear program was severely damaged by recent U.S. strikes, and that it would take years to be rebuilt.
“This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years,” Mr. Ratcliffe said in a statement.
This comes in the wake of President Donald Trump’s administration hiting back on Wednesday at accounts Iran may have moved enriched uranium before U.S. bombing, as a row grew on how much the strikes set back Tehran’s nuclear program.
Mr. Trump, seeking credit for ordering military action and then quickly announcing a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, has lashed out angrily at media accounts of a classified report that doubted the extent of damage to Iranian nuclear sites.
Another key question raised by experts is whether Iran, preparing for the strike, moved out some 400 kilogram (880 pounds) of enriched uranium— which could now be hidden elsewhere in the vast country.
“I can tell you, the United States had no indication that that enriched uranium was moved prior to the strikes, as I also saw falsely reported,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News.
“As for what’s on the ground right now, it’s buried under miles and miles of rubble because of the success of these strikes on Saturday (June 21, 2025) evening,” she said.
Vice President J.D. Vance, asked about the uranium on Sunday (June 22, 2025), had sounded less definitive and said the United States would discuss the issue with Iran.
“We’re going to work in the coming weeks to ensure that we do something with that fuel,” Mr. Vance told ABC News program “This Week.”
The quantity of uranium had been reported by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, with which Iran is considering severing cooperation after the Israeli and U.S. strikes on its nuclear program.
“The IAEA lost visibility on this material the moment hostilities began,” the Agency’s Chief, Rafael Grossi, told France 2 television.
But he added: “I don’t want to give the impression that it’s been lost or hidden.”
Israel is widely known to have nuclear weapons but does not publicly confirm or deny its program. The United States is the only nation to have used nuclear weapons in war.
Published – June 26, 2025 08:11 am IST
