The US military did not use bombs with a hopper on one of the largest nuclear sites in Iran last weekend, as the site is so deep that bombs would probably not be effective, said the best US general during a briefing on Thursday.
The comment of the chairman of the joint chiefs of the employees Dan Kane, who was described by three people who heard his remarks, and the fourth, who was informed on them, is the first known explanation that was given why the US military did not use the massive bomb of penetrating bombs opposite the site of Isfahan in Central Iran. US officials believe that Isfahan’s underground structures contain nearly 60% of Iran -enriched stock that Iran would need to produce a nuclear weapon.
B2 US bombers have dropped on a dozen bombs with a bunker of Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites. But Isfahan was only struck by Tomahouk missiles fired by an American submarine.
The classified briefing to the legislators was conducted by Kane, Defense Minister Pete Heget, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. Kane spokesmen did not return requests for comment.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told CNN on Thursday night after receiving a briefing that some of Iran’s capabilities “are underground so far that we can never reach them. So they have the ability to move a lot of what is rescued to areas where there is no American bombing capacity.”
An early rating produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency on the day after US strikes said the attack did not destroy the main components of the country’s nuclear program, including its enriched uranium, and probably put the program for months, CNN reported. He also said that Iran may have moved some of the enriched uranium from the objects before being attacked.
Trump officials, who informed MPs this week, surrounded the Iran’s reserve locations of an already enriched uranium. President Donald Trump again claims on Friday that nothing had been moved from the three Iranian sites before the US military operation.
But Republican MPs emerged from the classified briefings on Thursday, admitting that US military strikes may not have eliminated all Iran’s nuclear materials. But they claimed that this was not part of the military mission.
“The facilities have an enriched uranium that is moving, but it was not the intention or mission,” Republican representative Michael McCol of Texas told CNN. “My understanding is the most of this is still there. So we need full accounting. That’s why Iran has to come to the table directly with us, so (the International Atomic Energy Agency) can take into account any ounce of enriched uranium, which is there. I don’t think it’s coming out of the country, I think it’s in the facilities.”
“The purpose of the mission was to remove certain specific aspects of its nuclear program. These were eliminated. To get rid of nuclear material was not part of the mission,” Greg Murphy Greg Murphy told CNN.
“Here we are in: The program was deleted on these three sites. But they still have ambitions,” said Republican Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina. “I don’t know where there are 900 pounds highly enriched uranium. But it was not part of the whole there.”
“(Sites) were deleted. No one can use them soon,” Graham said.
Air Force General Dan Kane leaves after a closed briefing for the Iranian Senate Situations on the United States on the Capitol Hill in Washington, Colombia, on June 26 – Elizabeth Franz/Reuters
Weapons expert and professor at the Institute for International Research in Matrilbury Jeffrey Lewis told CNN that commercial satellite images show that Iran had gained access to the tunnels in Isfahan.
“On June 26, there were a moderate number of vehicles in Isfahan and at least one of the tunnel entrances was cleared of obstacles until mid -morning on June 27,” Lewis said. “If Iran’s stock of (highly enriched uranium) was still in the tunnel when Iran seals the entrances, it may now be elsewhere.”
Additional satellite images, shot on June 27 by Planet Labs, show that the tunnel entrance was open at that time, according to Lewis.
This image by Planet Labs, provided by the Institute of International Research in Matetbury in Monterey, shows the ISFAHAN Nuclear Technology Research Center on June 27 – Planet Labss
The preliminary evaluation of DIA notes that the aerial structures of nuclear sites are moderate to severely damaged, CNN reported. This damage can make it difficult for the Iran to have access to any enriched uranium that remains underground, sources said, something that Graham mentions on Thursday.
“These strikes have caused a lot of damage to these three facilities,” Murphy told Connecticut’s democrat over CNN on Thursday night. “But Iran still has a know-how to reunite a nuclear program. And if they still have this enriched material and if they still have centrifuges, and if they still have the ability to move these centrifuges very quickly to what we call a cascade, we have not put this program for years.
Kane and Heget on Thursday said the military operation against Fordou was going exactly as planned, but did not mention the effects on Isfahan and Nathan.
CNN Manu Raju contributed to this report.
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