Israeli officials reportedly believe Iranian military officials have been passing along false information to the political echelon, downplaying the actual extent of the damage sustained by its nuclear facilities following the U.S. bombing this weekend.
An Israeli official told Axios that the country is doing its own damage assessment and that military leaders have been downplaying it. "he Iranians themselves still don't even have a clear idea what happened to some of their nuclear facilities," another official told the outlet.
Israel does believe the attacks have caused significant damage to the sites, contradicting the Pentagon's initial assessment that no extensive damage was caused by the bombing.
According to Axios, Israeli officials are "perplexed" by the leaked intelligence report. Even though the country has not produced a final report on the strikes, the initial evaluation is far more optimistic, with an official telling the outlet that there are "no indications the bunker-buster bombs didn't work." "Nobody here is disappointed," the official added.
The view is much more closer to President Donald Trump's, who has claimed Iran's nuclear facilities have been "obliterated." White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also slammed the report on Tuesday, saying that the assessment is "flat-out wrong and was classified as 'top secret' but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community."
The official went on to say that the report is 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." "Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration," she concluded.
Trump has expressed confidence in the effectiveness of the strikes, as has Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The U.S. military has also referred to the operation as an "overwhelming success."
The three sites hit in the attacks, Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, sustained severe damage in their aboveground structures, leading Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to reiterate that Iran's nuclear facilities "have been obliterated."
Israeli officials said that at Natanz, the above-ground enrichment facility was completely destroyed and that signs point to the collapse of the underground infrastructure. The full extent of the damages to Fordow and Isfahan is still being assessed. "We doubt that these facilities can be activated any time in the near future," another official told Axios. Moreover, officials believe that Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium is buried beneath rubble at Isfahan and Fordow.
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