THE HAGUE, June 25. /TASS/. Iranian nuclear facilities were completely destroyed in American strikes, US President Donald Trump said.
"When you take a look at the ground above [the nuclear facilities], don't forget, the flame is all underground. But everything above, if you look at the before and the after pictures, everything above is burned black, the trees, everything. <…> I believe it was total obliteration," the US leader said at a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on the sidelines of the alliance’s summit.
According to Trump, it is highly unlikely that the Iranian authorities evacuated nuclear materials from the Fordow underground uranium enrichment facility before the US attacked the site. "I believe they didn't have a chance to get anything out, because we acted fast. It would have taken [them] two weeks, maybe, [to do so]. But it's very hard to remove that kind of material. It’s very hard and very dangerous to remove it," the US president pointed out.
He also said that the American attacks on the Iranian nuclear facility pushed back the country’s nuclear program by decades. "I believe [it was put back] basically decades, because I don't think they'll ever do it again," Trump emphasized.
The president also criticized the US media, particularly the news outlets hostile to him, for reporting, based on intelligence data, that the US did not completely destroy the Iranian nuclear facilities.
In the early morning hours of June 13, Israel launched a military operation against Iran. Less than 24 hours later, Iran retaliated. Nine days later, on the morning of June 22, US jets attacked three Iranian nuclear facilities, entering the conflict. The following evening, Tehran launched a missile strike on Al Udeid, the largest US military airbase in the region, located in Qatar. According to the US authorities, there were no casualties or significant damage.
On June 24, Trump announced that Israel and Iran had agreed to a complete ceasefire. The Israeli authorities confirmed that they had accepted the US proposal and announced that they had completed all objectives in their operation against Iran. In turn, Tehran said that it had achieved a victory over Tel Aviv by forcing it to unilaterally halt its aggression. The ceasefire has been in effect since June 24.