US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth briefed the Pentagon press corps on the joint US-Israel strikes, calling them a resolute setback to Iran's nuclear program.
Hegseth said that with the strikes, US President Donald Trump had “created the conditions to end the war, decimating – choose your word – obliterating, destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities.”
In his remarks, Hegseth quoted several US and international figures who confirmed that the strikes had destroyed Iran's nuclear program. This was in order to rebut findings from the US Defense Intelligence Agency's (DIA) report, which had suggested that Iran's nuclear program was set back a matter of months.
“I hope, with all the ink spilled, all of your outlets find the time to properly recognize this historic change in continental security that other presidents tried to do, other presidents talked about,” Hegseth said, as reported by CNN. “President Trump accomplished it. It’s a huge deal.”
This comes after IDF Chief of Staff Effie Defrin announced that Operation Midnight Hammer had set the nuclear program back several years.
“The program has been set back years,” Defrin told Israeli media.
White House denies DIA report
“The estimate is that we substantially damaged the nuclear program... we set it back years. I repeat: It has been set back years.”
CNN had received the DIA report from a source in the defense intelligence community and leaked it in a "clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program," White House press spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
"Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: Total obliteration," she added.
This is a developing story.