US intelligence concluded this Wednesday that Iran was not rebuilding its nuclear enrichment capabilities destroyed in a joint US-Israel strike in June 2025, thus contradicting President Donald Trump’s justifications for his ongoing war.
Tulsi Gabbard, an ally of trump who serves as director of National Intelligence, shared this conclusion in written testimony as part of an annual threat assessment, but did not reiterate it when addressing senators.
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“As a result of Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was wiped out. Since then, no efforts have been made to attempt to rebuild its enrichment capacity.”Gabbard declared in her testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
When questioned by a Democratic senator about why she did not repeat that conclusion before the cameras, Gabbard responded that he did not have enough time to read the entire testimony during the hearing, although he did not deny the validity of the evaluation.
The US bombing of Fordow. (AFP).
Trump has repeatedly claimed that he ordered the attack on Iran – in collaboration with Israel – on February 28 due to an “imminent threat.”
After the bombing of June 2025, Trump declared that the United States had completely destroyed Iran’s nuclear facilities.
However, since the beginning of its most recent war, it has maintained that Tehran was a few weeks away from obtaining an atomic bomb.a claim not shared by most observers and which comes despite ongoing talks on a nuclear deal.
A high-level advisor Gabbard —who, during his time as a congressman, had led opposition to a war with Iran— He resigned on Tuesday, arguing that there was no “imminent threat” and that Trump was misled by Israel and the media..
In his statements before the senators, Gabbard noted that Iran had been hit hard during the weeks of attacks —including the assassination of its long-serving supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—but that the Islamic Republic remained operational.
The US intelligence community “assesses that Iran’s regime remains intact, although significantly degraded due to targeted attacks on its leadership and military capabilities,” he said.
“If a hostile regime manages to survive, it is likely to undertake a multi-year effort to rebuild its military forces, its missile arsenals and its unmanned aerial vehicle units,” he added.
