'Iran was not rebuilding nuclear enrichment after 2025 strikes', claims US intel

US intelligence has assessed that Iran is not rebuilding its nuclear enrichment capabilities following their destruction during a joint US-Israeli strike in June 2025, challenging President Donald Trump's rationale for continued military action. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, an ally of Trump, presented the findings in written testimony for the annual threat assessment to the Senate Intelligence Committee. However, she did not mention this conclusion during her spoken remarks to lawmakers.

"As a result of Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated. There have been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability," Gabbard said in the testimony to the Senate intelligence committee. When questioned by a Democratic senator about the omission, Gabbard explained that time constraints prevented her from reading the full testimony aloud, though she did not dispute the conclusion. Trump has consistently maintained that the February 28 strike on Iran, conducted alongside Israel, was necessary due to an 'imminent threat.'

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Following the June 2025 bombing, Trump claimed that Iran’s nuclear infrastructure had been fully destroyed. However, he has more recently asserted that Tehran was only weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon, an assessment not widely supported, especially amid ongoing diplomatic efforts over a nuclear agreement. A senior aide to Gabbard resigned Tuesday, saying there was no "imminent threat" and alleging that Trump had been misled by Israeli sources and media narratives.

In her Senate statement, Gabbard acknowledged that Iran has sustained significant damage from weeks of attacks, including the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but emphasized that the government remains operational. The US intelligence community "assesses the regime in Iran to be intact but largely degraded due to attacks on its leadership and military capabilities," Gabbard said. "If a hostile regime survives, it will likely seek to begin a years-long effort to rebuild its military, missiles, and UAV forces," Gabbard said, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.

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