Did Iran move enriched uranium stockpile to 'secret nuclear sites' before US strike? Leaked intel report suggests so

A leaked intel report on the early assessment of the damage wrought by US bombing on three Iranian nuclear strikes has concluded that the strike has only set Tehran's nuclear programme back by a few months. As per reports, the damage was further lessened by the fact that Iran moved enriched uranium out of the sites before the US strikes. Citing people in the know, reports suggest that Iran's enriched uranium stockpiles were moved before US President Donald Trump ordered strikes that could destroy them. Trump, on his part, has doubled down on his "obliterated" Iran's nuclear sites claim and has slammed news websites that published the US leaked intel.

Iran moved nuclear stockpiles

Citing two people familiar with the classified US assessment, CNN reported that Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed and that its centrifuges were largely "intact." One of the people who chose to stay anonymous claimed that the "enriched uranium was moved out of the sites prior to the US strikes". Similarly, The New York Times reported that "much of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was moved before the strikes, which destroyed little of the nuclear material. Some of that may have been moved to secret nuclear sites maintained by Iran."

Watch | U.S. intelligence says main components of nuke programmme not destroyed

The leaked preliminary, classified report comes from the United States Defence Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's intelligence arm. It suggests that the recent American bombing campaign on Iran's nuclear facilities — touted by President Donald Trump as a mission that "obliterated" Tehran's capabilities — has, in fact, only set the programme back by a few months. While earlier, as per US estimation, Iran was just three months away from making a bomb, now, as per the leaked assessment, Tehran's nuclear timeline has been delayed by as little as three months. However, quickly slamming the reports, Trump on Truth Social doubled down on his claims that the Iranian nuclear sites were "obliterated" in US strikes. Insisting that the three nuclear facilities were "completely destroyed" he ridiculed media houses that published reports casting doubt on his claims of the destruction of three nuclear sites in Iran -Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan.