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2025-07-01 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
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CIA chief says strike on metal conversion site set Iran nuclear program back by years
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[IsraelTimes] Isfahan site damage assessment shared with US lawmakers appears to mesh with that of Israeli officials; Iranian envoy to the UN vows the Islamic Republic ‘will never stop’ enriching uranium
CIA Director John Ratcliffe told skeptical US politicians that American military strikes destroyed Iran’s lone metal conversion facility and in the process delivered a monumental setback to Tehran’s nuclear program that would take years to overcome, a US official said Sunday.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive intelligence, said Ratcliffe laid out the importance of the strikes on the metal conversion facility during a classified hearing for US politicians last week.
The metal conversion facility that Ratcliffe said was destroyed was located at the Isfahan nuclear facility. The process of transforming enriched uranium gas into dense metal, or metallization, is a key step in building the explosive core of a bomb.
Details about the private briefings surfaced as President Donald Trump
...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...
and his administration keep pushing back on questions from Democratic politicians and others about how far Iran
 ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
was set back by the strikes before last Tuesday’s ceasefire with Israel took hold.
"It was obliterating like nobody’s ever seen before," Trump said in an interview on Fox News Channel’s "Sunday Morning Futures." "And that meant the end to their nuclear ambitions, at least for a period of time."
Ratcliffe also told politicians that the intelligence community assessed the vast majority of Iran’s amassed enriched uranium likely remains buried under the rubble at Isfahan and Fordo, two of the three key nuclear facilities targeted by US strikes.
But even if the uranium remains intact, the loss of its metal conversion facility effectively has taken away Tehran’s ability to build a bomb for years to come, the official said.
Rafael Grossi, head of the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency, said Sunday on CBS’ "Face the Nation" that the three Iranian sites with "capabilities in terms of treatment, conversion and enrichment of uranium have been destroyed to an important degree."
But, he added, "some is still standing" and that because capabilities remain, "if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again." He said assessing the full damage comes down to Iran allowing in inspectors.
"Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared, and there is nothing there," Grossi said.
Appearing on the same CBS program, Iran’s ambassador to the UN vowed the Islamic Theocratic Republic "will never stop" enriching uranium.
"The enrichment is our right, an innate right, and we want to implement this right," said Amir Saeid Iravani.
Trump has insisted from just hours after three key targets were struck by US bunker-buster bombs and Tomahawk missiles that Iran’s nuclear program was "obliterated."
His defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has said they were "destroyed." A preliminary report issued by the US Defense Intelligence Agency, meanwhile, said the strikes did significant damage to the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan sites, but did not totally destroy the facilities.
As a result of Israeli and US strikes, Grossi says that "it is clear that there has been severe damage, but it’s not total damage." Israel claims it has set back Iran’s nuclear program by "many years."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
in comments at the NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
summit last week also suggested that it was likely the US strikes had destroyed the metal conversion facility.
"You can’t do a nuclear weapon without a conversion facility," Rubio said. "We can’t even find where it is, where it used to be on the map. You can’t even find where it used to be because the whole thing is just blackened out. It’s gone. It’s wiped out."
The CIA director also stressed to politicians during the congressional briefing that Iran’s air defense was shattered during the 12-day assault. As a result, any attempt by Iran to rebuild its nuclear program could now easily be thwarted by Israeli strikes that Iran currently has little wherewithal to defend against, the official said.
Ratcliffe’s briefing to politicians on the US findings appeared to mesh with some of Israeli officials’ battle damage assessments.
Israeli officials have determined that Iran’s ability to enrich uranium to a weapons-grade level was neutralized for a prolonged period, according to a senior Israeli military official who was not authorized to talk publicly about the matter.
Tehran’s nuclear program also was significantly damaged by the strikes killing key scientists, damage to Iran’s missile production industry and the battering of Iran’s aerial defense system, according to the Israeli’s assessment. 
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Posted by trailing wife 2025-07-01 00:00||
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