The Pentagon believes that American and Israeli strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities have delayed Tehran’s nuclear program by as much as two years.
Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon on July 2, Department of Defense spokesperson Sean Parnell said that U.S. and Israeli strikes had severely degraded Iran’s capability to pursue a nuclear weapon if it chose to do so.
It was likely, he said, that Iran’s capability to develop a nuclear weapon had been degraded “by one to two years.”
“I think we’re thinking probably closer to two years,” Parnell said.
He also said that the U.S. operation Midnight Hammer, which saw American forces drop bunker buster bombs on Iran’s fortified nuclear enrichment site at Fordow, likely destroyed key underground enrichment facilities there….