Hague (Reuters)-US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that damage to Iranian nuclear facilities caused by US missile attacks over the weekend were severe, even recognizing that available intelligence on the subject was inconclusive.
His comments were made after reports from Reuters and other media vehicles on Tuesday revealing that the US Defense Intelligence Agency had evaluated that the attacks delayed the Iranian nuclear program in just a few months, although government officials said the program had been destroyed.
“Intelligence was … very inconclusive,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte before a summit in The Hague.
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“Intelligence says, ‘We don’t know, it may have been very severe.’ That’s what intelligence says. So, I think it’s right, but I think we can accept ‘we don’t know’. It was very severe. It was an obliteration,” Trump added.
Later, during the same round of comments, Trump argued that the nuclear agreement of Iran had retreated “basically decades, because I think they will never do that.”
Trump, who arrived in the Netherlands on Tuesday night to NATO’s annual leadership summit, was sitting alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who also launched doubts about the reliability of the defense intelligence agency’s assessment.
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Rubio said the US was opening an investigation into the leakage of the agency’s report. He also suggested that the content of the report had been misrepresented in the media.
At the summit, NATO member countries should announce their joint intention to increase defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product.
Although some countries have suggested that they may not indeed reach this limit, the Trump government has pointed to the expected commitment as a significant victory for foreign policy.
