US defence chief: No evidence Iran moved uranium before US strikes
US military bombers carried out strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities early Sunday local time using more than a dozen 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs.
The results of the strikes are being closely watched to see how far they may have set back Iran's nuclear programme, after President Donald Trump said it had been obliterated.
'I'm not aware of any intelligence that I've reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be, moved or otherwise,' Hegseth told an often fiery news conference.
Trump, who watched Hegseth's exchange with reporters, echoed his defense secretary, saying it would have taken too long to remove anything.
'The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out of (the) facility,' Trump wrote on his social media platform, without providing evidence.
Several experts have cautioned that Iran likely moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of the deeply buried Fordow site before the strikes, and could be hiding it in unknown locations.
They noted satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showing 'unusual activity' at Fordow on Thursday and Friday, with a long line of vehicles waiting outside an entrance to the facility. A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday most of the 60 per cent highly enriched uranium had been moved to an undisclosed location before the attack.
Whereabouts of uranium
The Financial Times, citing European intelligence assessments, reported that Iran's highly enriched uranium stockpile remains largely intact since it was not concentrated at Fordow.
Hegseth's comments denying such claims came at the news briefing where he also accused journalists of downplaying the success of the strikes following a leaked preliminary assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency suggesting they may have only set back Iran by months.
He said the assessment was low confidence, and, citing comments from CIA Director John Ratcliffe, had been overtaken by intelligence showing Iran's nuclear programme was severely damaged and would take years to rebuild.
US senators briefed later on Thursday by Ratcliffe, Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it was clear the strikes had damaged Iran's nuclear facilities, though it would take time to assess by how much.
'I will say it was not part of the mission to destroy all their enriched uranium or to seize it or anything else,' Republican Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton of Arkansas told reporters after the classified briefing, adding that he was confident the mission was 'extraordinary.'
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Intelligence Committee Democrat, said the only way to be certain about Iran's nuclear capabilities was to have inspectors on the ground.
'It was clear, and again, this is long before this brief, that some of the enriched uranium was never going to be taken out by a bunker-buster bomb, so some of that obviously remains,' Warner said.
Tulsi Gabbard, who normally would conduct such briefings as director of national intelligence, did not participate. Trump said last week that she was wrong in suggesting there was no evidence Iran was building a nuclear weapon.
The four officials were due to brief the House of Representatives on Friday.
Senators are expected to vote this week on a resolution that would require congressional approval for strikes against Iran, which is not expected to be enacted.
At the Pentagon news conference, Hegseth described the strikes as 'historically successful.' His comments came after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran would respond to any future US attack by striking American military bases in the Middle East.
Khamenei claimed victory after 12 days of war, and promised Iran would not surrender despite Trump's calls.
Media 'hatred'
During the news conference, Hegseth criticised the media, without evidence, for having an anti-Trump bias.
'It's in your DNA and in your blood to cheer against Trump because you want him not to be successful so bad,' Hegseth said.
'There are so many aspects of what our brave men and women did that ... because of the hatred of this press corps, are undermined,' he said.
Trump praised Hegseth's news conference as: 'One of the greatest, most professional, and most 'confirming' News Conferences I have ever seen!'
On X, Hegseth thanked Trump for his praise.
During the press conference, Caine, the top US general, largely stuck to technical details, showing a video testing the bombs on a bunker like the ones struck on Sunday.
Caine declined to provide his own assessment of the strike, deferring to the intelligence community. He denied being under pressure to present a more optimistic view of the US strikes and said he would not change his assessment due to politics.
Uniformed military officials are supposed to remain apolitical.
'I've never been pressured by the president or the secretary to do anything other than tell them exactly what I'm thinking, and that's exactly what I've done,' Caine said. — Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Free Malaysia Today
26 minutes ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Too early to decide on Nick Adams's nomination as US envoy, says Anwar
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the government will give the nomination of Nick Adams due consideration and, at the same time, maintain good ties with Washington. PUTRAJAYA : Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says it is premature for the government to decide on whether to approve conservative political commentator Nick Adams as the next US ambassador to Malaysia. Anwar said Putrajaya is following the proper protocol in considering foreign ambassadorial appointments. 'It is still too early (to decide),' he told reporters after Friday prayers here. 'Of course, the government will give it due consideration. At the same time, we will maintain good relations between Malaysia and the US.' US president Donald Trump has nominated Adams as Washington's new ambassador to Malaysia. His nomination will need to be confirmed by the US senate before he can assume the role. While no date has been set for the senate vote, Adams is expected to be approved as the Republican-held senate has backed every Trump nominee since he became president in January. Adams's nomination has faced opposition from former law minister Zaid Ibrahim and former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who said Malaysia has every right under the Vienna Convention to reject the appointment without providing a reason. Zaid described Adams as a 'right-wing agitator and partisan provocateur' who is unfit to serve as a US ambassador because of his lack of diplomatic credentials. Adams previously criticised alleged efforts to 'teach Islam in schools'. Known to be a staunch supporter of Israel, he has said that those who expressed solidarity with Palestinians supported terrorism. Selangor PAS Youth chief Sukri Omar said accepting Adams's nomination will be seen as an insult to the country's Muslim community and Malaysians who support Palestine. PKR Youth today submitted a memorandum of protest to the US embassy over the nomination.
Free Malaysia Today
3 hours ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Trump's budget hacksaw leaves public broadcasting on precipice
In early May, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order requiring an end to the subsidisation of NPR and PBS. (AFP pic) NEW YORK : Hundreds of television and radio stations across the US risk seeing their resources evaporate, after President Donald Trump prevailed today in scrapping federal funding for public broadcasting. The cuts follow Trump's accusations of ideological bias and will deal a bitter blow to information dissemination nationwide, including rural areas with limited news resources. At the Republican president's urging, lawmakers along party lines approved the clawback of US$1.1 billion in funding already allocated by Congress over the next two years to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Created in 1967 by president Lyndon Johnson, the non-profit CPB finances a minority share of the budgets of national radio and television mainstays NPR and PBS. However, the unprecedented rescission will also critically impact some 1,500 local radio and TV stations, from the East Coast to Alaska, that air part of the public broadcasters' content. 'Without federal funding, many local public radio and television stations will be forced to shut down,' warned CPB president Patricia Harrison. Connection Stations have been sounding the alarm for months. Prairie Public Broadcasting, which has served North Dakota for 60 years, estimates it could lose 26% of its budget between combined cuts in state and CPB funding. For Vermont Public, a broadcaster in the US Northeast, US$4 million in funding is at stake. 'We're going to be forced to make some really difficult decisions about what local programming stays and what local programming we have to cut,' said Ryan Howlett, who heads the financial arm of South Dakota Public Broadcasting, which oversees a dozen local radio stations and as many local TV stations. In this rural and conservative state, 'you're going to lose a connection point that binds us together,' he told AFP. Trump has made very public his hostility to the media, which he often brands 'fake news' and the 'enemy of the people,' a driving force behind his political rhetoric. In early May, Trump issued an executive order requiring an end to the subsidisation of NPR and PBS, saying 'neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens'. 'These are partisan, leftwing outlets that are funded by the taxpayers, and this administration does not believe it's a good use of the taxpayers' time and money,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said yesterday. Howlett emphasised that there is little such criticism in local communities in South Dakota. 'We're part of people's everyday lives,' he said. Turning point The elimination of CPB funding, advocated by the 'Project 2025' blueprint of the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, marks a turning point. Other attempts in the past had met with opposition from lawmakers, including Republicans in rural areas. Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeastern University in Boston, stressed it is in those very areas where the funding cuts are likely to have 'a devastating effect'. For remote communities, 'these stations are an absolute lifeline,' he said. 'This is where people go to find out a tornado is coming,' or about other emergency news. Such arguments were rejected by Heritage Foundation fellow Mike Gonzalez, who wrote the chapter on public broadcasting in the Project 2025 blueprint. For him, 'state and local governments can devise and set up systems that take care of the problem, on a much cheaper basis than the entire public broadcasting apparatus, and without the attendant ills that accompany the present system'. The end of the federal funding is undoubtedly a blow to local news in the US. Due to declining readership and the consolidation of titles under larger corporations, more than a third of the nation's newspapers have shuttered since 2005, a loss of 3,300 titles, according to a report from the Medill School at Northwestern University. According to a recent map drawn by analysis firm Muck Rack and the Rebuild Local News coalition, there are now only 8.2 journalists per 100,000 Americans, down from 40 in the early 2000s.
Free Malaysia Today
3 hours ago
- Free Malaysia Today
New clashes rock Syria's Druze heartland as tribal fighters reinforce Bedouin
The renewed fighting has raised questions over the authority of Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa. (EPA Images pic) WALGHA : Armed tribes supported by Syria's Islamist-led government clashed with Druze fighters in the community's Sweida heartland today, a day after the army withdrew under Israeli bombardment and diplomatic pressure. The United Nations called for an end to the 'bloodshed' and demanded an 'independent' investigation of the violence, which has claimed nearly 600 lives since Sunday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The renewed fighting raised questions over the authority of interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose interim government also has difficult relations with the Kurdish minority in the northeast and the Alawite minority on the Mediterranean coast. It was Sharaa who ordered government forces to pull out, saying that mediation by the US and others had helped avert a 'large-scale escalation' with Israel. Tribal reinforcements from across Syria gathered in villages around Sweida today to reinforce local Bedouin, whose longstanding enmity towards the Druze erupted into violence last weekend. Anas al-Enad, a tribal chief from the central city of Hama, said he and his men had made the journey to the village of Walgha, northwest of Sweida, because 'the Bedouin called for our help and we came to support them'. An AFP correspondent saw burning homes and shops in the village, now under the control of the Bedouin and their allies. The Britain-based Observatory said 'the deployment of tribal fighters to Sweida province was facilitated by government forces, because government forces are unable to deploy to Sweida under the terms of the security agreement with Israel'. Israel sends aid for Druze Israel, which bombed the Syrian army in Sweida and Damascus earlier this week to put pressure on the government to withdraw, said today that it was sending aid to the Druze community in Sweida. 'In light of the recent attacks targeting the Druze community in Sweida and the severe humanitarian situation in the area, foreign minister Gideon Saar has ordered the urgent transfer of humanitarian aid to the Druze population in the region,' the foreign ministry said. The 2 million shekel (nearly $600,000) package includes food parcels and medical supplies, the ministry said. A ceasefire was supposed to take effect yesterday, but Sharaa's office accused Druze fighters of violating it. Sweida has been heavily damaged in the fighting and its mainly Druze inhabitants have been deprived of mains water and electricity, while communication lines have been cut. The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs said that nearly 2,000 families had been forced from their homes in Sweida province. Rayan Maarouf, editor-in-chief of local news outlet Suwayda 24, said the humanitarian situation was 'catastrophic'. 'We cannot find milk for children,' he told AFP. UN demands independent probe UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Turk called for an end to the bloodshed, saying 'the protection of all people must be the utmost priority'. He demanded 'independent, prompt and transparent investigations into all violations' adding that 'those responsible must be held to account'. The latest violence erupted on Sunday after the kidnapping of a Druze vegetable merchant by local Bedouin triggered tit-for-tat abductions, the Britain-based Observatory said. The Islamist-led government sent in the army, promising to put a halt to the fighting, but witnesses and the Observatory said the troops sided with the Bedouin and committed many abuses, against Druze civilians as well as fighters. The interim government has had strained relations with Syria's religious and ethnic minorities since it toppled long-time leader Bashar al-Assad in December. This week's fighting marks the most serious outbreak of violence since government forces battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and around Damascus in April and May, leaving more than 100 people dead.
