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The CIA director has told US lawmakers that American military strikes delivered a major blow to Iran’s nuclear program by destroying its only metal conversion facility, the Associated Press reported Sunday, citing a US official familiar with the classified briefing.
John Ratcliffe made the assessment during a closed-door hearing with members of Congress last week, calling the attack a “monumental setback” for Tehran’s nuclear capabilities that could take years to recover from, according to the unnamed official.
The revelation comes amid continued scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers over the scope and impact of the strikes carried out before last Tuesday’s ceasefire between Iran and Israel.
US intelligence believes the majority of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is now buried beneath the rubble of the Isfahan and Fordow sites—two of the three key nuclear facilities hit in the strikes, Ratcliffe told lawmakers.
Iran's foreign minister has called for an emergency session of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to condemn Israel's military campaign targeting what he called industrial chemical facilities in Iran.
"The Islamic Republic has called for an emergency session of the Executive Council of the OPCW to examine and condemn the inhuman attacks on the country's infrastructure, including industrial chemical facilities," said Abbas Araghchi in a statement on Sunday.
"Iran, as the largest victim of chemical weapons in modern history, is a strong advocate for a world free of weapons of mass destruction and the initiator of a Middle East free of nuclear weapons," Araghchi added.
"The country has always been at the forefront of the fight against these weapons," he said.
The statement was published on the 38th anniversary of Saddam Hussein's chemical attack against Sardasht in western Iran, which, according to OPCW documentation, killed over 100 people in a large-scale mustard gas attack.
A pundit on Iran's state-run TV said on Sunday that the current ceasefire is merely a brief period for Israel and the US to regroup, and they will resume their attacks on Iran soon.
"The available evidence indicates that Israel, with US support, will resume its surprise and destructive military operations against Iran within a week at most," said Ebrahim Mottaqi, head of the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Tehran, in a televised interview.
“Israel and the United States view the ceasefire as a means of regrouping and optimizing their own military capabilities,” he said.
Mottaqi called on Iranian officials to not take the ceasefire seriously, adding, "Iranian officials would be the targets of such an attack."
Israeli airstrikes against Iran opened up many opportunities, including “broad regional possibilities," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday during a visit to a Shin Bet facility in southern Israel.
“First of all, [we need] to free the hostages. Of course, we will also have to solve the Gaza issue, to defeat Hamas, but I believe that we will achieve both tasks.”
