Egypt Daily News – U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that thanks to decisive military action in Iran, President Donald Trump created the conditions necessary to end the war. Hegseth revealed that the intelligence report was leaked because some parties wanted to portray the American strike in Iran as a failure, saying that the media is searching for a scandal, ignoring accomplishments, and targeting President Trump.
He stated that the initial report leaked to the media claimed there was a lack of information and was based on assumptions, pointing out that the media was hoping the strikes would be unsuccessful just to politically target President Trump.
The U.S. Secretary of Defense noted that CIA information confirms the American strikes in Iran delayed its nuclear program by years. Hegseth stressed that President Trump eliminated Iran’s nuclear capabilities and created the right opportunity to reach peace.
According to the leaked U.S. intelligence report, which was prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and leaked to the media, the wide-scale American strike targeting three Iranian nuclear sites did not achieve “complete destruction” of the facilities as President Trump announced, but rather caused only limited damage that would delay Iran’s nuclear program “for a few months,” not years.
The assessment indicated that Iran’s ability to enrich uranium, especially at the fortified Fordow facility inside a mountain, was not fully eliminated, and that the nuclear program was not stopped, but only temporarily set back.
The report also explained that there was a “lack of information,” and that the assessment was preliminary, prepared within just 24 hours after the strikes, based on satellite images without field verification, and that the confidence level in the data was “low.”
The leak also indicated the possibility of undisclosed Iranian sites that were not targeted and are still operational, meaning part of the nuclear program may still be ongoing. Some members of Congress warned that failure to manage the situation accurately could lead to a “race toward a dirty bomb.”
The leaked report sparked significant political and media controversy in Washington. The Trump administration considered it an attempt to undermine its achievements, while media outlets saw it as evidence that the strike did not accomplish its declared objectives.
Meanwhile, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Kane said what happened at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar was the largest-ever engagement by the Patriot missile defense system in the history of the U.S. military. He added that the bombs dropped by the U.S. military on Iran’s Fordow facility hit all their targets.
