Pentagon chief Hegseth backs Trump on success of Iran strikes

RNZ News

2 days ago

By
W G Dunlop,
AFP
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth
Photo:
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted on Thursday (US time) that American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites were a success, backing President Donald Trump and berating the media for covering an intelligence report that questioned the results of the operation.
American B-2 bombers hit two Iranian nuclear sites with massive GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs last weekend, while a guided missile submarine struck a third site with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
"President Trump created the conditions to end the war, decimating - choose your word - obliterating, destroying Iran's nuclear capabilities," Hegseth told journalists at the Pentagon, referring to a 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran.
Trump has called the strikes a "spectacular military success" and repeatedly said they "obliterated" the nuclear sites.
On Thursday, he insisted that Iran did not manage to move nuclear materials, including enriched uranium, ahead of the US military action.
"Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!" Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
However, US media revealed a preliminary American intelligence assessment earlier this week that said the strikes only set back Iran's nuclear programme by months - coverage sharply criticised by Hegseth.
"Whether it's fake news CNN, MSNBC or the
New York Times
, there's been fawning coverage of a preliminary assessment."
The document was "leaked because someone had an agenda to try to muddy the waters and make it look like this historic strike wasn't successful", Hegseth said.
Trump has also lashed out at coverage of the intelligence report, calling for journalists to lose their jobs.
h] 'Get a big shovel'
Hegseth did not definitively state that the enriched uranium and centrifuges at the heart of Iran's controversial nuclear programme had been wiped out, but cited intelligence officials, although giving little detail, as saying the nuclear facilities were destroyed.
"If you want to know what's going on at Fordo, you better go there and get a big shovel, because no one's under there right now," Hegseth said, referring to the deep-underground nuclear site.
U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon on June 26, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia.
Photo:
AFP / Getty Images / Andrew Harnik
Among the officials cited by Hegseth was US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who said the previous day that "Iran's nuclear facilities have been destroyed".
He also referred to a statement by CIA chief John Ratcliffe that said: "A body of credible intelligence indicates Iran's nuclear programme has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes."
Ratcliffe pointed to a "historically reliable and accurate" source of information indicating that "several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years".
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi, speaking on Thursday on French radio, meanwhile said Iran's uranium-enriching centrifuges had been knocked out.
"Given power of these (bombs) and the characteristics of a centrifuge, we already know that these centrifuges are no longer operational," Grossi said.
Israel launched an unprecedented air campaign targeting Iranian nuclear sites, scientists and top military brass on 13 June in a bid to end the country's nuclear programme, which Tehran says is for civilian purposes but Washington and other powers insist is aimed at acquiring atomic weapons.
Trump had spent weeks pursuing a diplomatic path to replace the nuclear deal with Tehran that he tore up during his first term in 2018, but he ultimately decided to take military action.
The US operation was massive, involving more than 125 US aircraft including stealth bombers, fighters and aerial refueling tankers as well as a guided missile submarine.
-AFP