President Trump on Wednesday maintained that nuclear materials were not moved prior to U.S. strikes on Iranian facilities, despite an internal preliminary assessment that indicated otherwise.
“We’re just the opposite. We think we hit them so hard and so fast, they didn’t get to move,” Trump said during a press conference at the NATO summit when asked if U.S. intelligence was able to assess whether materials were relocated from the sites.
“If you knew about that material, it’s very hard and very dangerous to move. It’s called — many people, they call it dust, but it’s very, very heavy. It’s very, very hard to move. And they were way down. You know, they’re 30 stories down. They’re literally 30-35 stories down in the ground,” the president added.
Trump’s remarks came as he and his top national security brass hit back at his administration’s initial assessment that damage to the three nuclear facilities only set the Iranians’ nuclear program back a few months.
Trump has insisted the strikes actually set the Iranians back decades.
When questioned on his message to the intelligence community about the report, Trump replied, “They presented a report that wasn’t finished. We’re talking about something that took place three days ago.”
He added, “They didn’t see it. All they can do is take a guess.”
“If you take a look at the pictures, if you take a look how it’s all black, if you know the fire and brimstone is all underground because it’s granite and it’s all underground, you don’t show it. But even there, with all of that being said, the whole area — for 75 yards around the hole where it hit — is black with fire,” Trump said.
Whether Iranians managed to move some nuclear materials ahead of the U.S. strikes appears to be in question.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has said the agency does not know the location of 900 pounds of enriched uranium from the sites.
“We do not have information of the whereabouts of this material. So, this is why I’m asking. We are making an assumption, which is not speculative or pure speculation, because Iran officially told me, ‘We are going to be taking protective measures, which may or may not include moving around this material,’” Grossi said on Fox News’s “The Story.”
He added, “So it is quite obvious, you are asking me about it, that there is a question there: ‘Where is this?’ So, the way to ascertain that is to allow the inspection activity to resume as soon as possible. And I think this will be for the benefit of all.”
Vice President Vance on Sunday, just hours after the U.S strikes, suggested officials are working to handle Iran’s uranium batch after the U.S. strikes.
“We are going to work in the coming weeks to ensure that we do something with that fuel, and that’s one of the things that we’re going to have conversations with the Iranians about,” Vance told ABC’s “This Week.”
Earlier Wednesday, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth publicly hit back on reporting on the administration’s internal assessment of a setback of only a few months, insisting “the site is obliterated.”
Trump opened his press conference by reading a statement from the Israel Atomic Energy Commission that said the strikes “set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.”
“This is an official letter, and they’re very serious people, as you know,” Trump said.
Updated at 11:25 a.m. EDT
