US defence secy: No known intel that Iran moved its uranium

Washington: US defence secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said he was unaware of any intelligence suggesting Iran had moved any of its highly enriched uranium to shield it from US strikes.

US military bombers carried out strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities early Sunday local time. The results of the strikes are being closely watched to see how far they may have set back Iran's nuclear programme. "I'm not aware of any intelligence that I've reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be, moved or otherwise," Hegseth said.

'Historically successful'

Several experts had noted satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showing "unusual activity" at Fordo on Thursday and Friday, with a long line of vehicles waiting outside an entrance to the facility. A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday that most of the 60% highly enriched uranium had been moved to an undisclosed location before the US attack. Experts quoted by the Associated Press said enriched uranium stocks can be moved in small canisters and are hard to find.


Hegseth's comments denying such claims came at the news briefing where he also accused the media of downplaying the success of the US strikes following a leaked, preliminary assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency suggesting they may have only set back Iran by months. At the Pentagon news conference, Hegseth described the strikes as "historically successful."

Khamenei's defiant tone

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed victory in the war with Israel and said the US's intervention achieved nothing, in his first comments since a ceasefire came into effect earlier this week. "The Islamic Republic emerged victorious and delivered a harsh slap to America's face" he said in a pre-recorded video message. "This action can be repeated in the future," he said, adding the US "gained no achievements from this war." Khamenei said the attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities "were unable to do anything important." In a reference to Trump's claims that the strikes "obliterated" the nuclear sites, he insisted that the President had "exaggerated" their effectiveness.

'Centrifuges not operational'

Centrifuges at the Fordo uranium enrichment plant in Iran are "no longer operational" after the United States attacked the facility with bunker-busting bombs, the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog IAEA Rafael Grossi said on French radio. Centrifuges, which are spinning machines used to enrich uranium, require a high-degree of precision and are vulnerable to intense vibrations, Grossi said. But he said it would be "too much" to assert that Iran's nuclear program is "wiped out". ap, reuters, nyt