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Maxar satellite imagery provides a second close-up view of the Isfahan nuclear facility in Iran on 22 June 2025, showing severe damage after the airstrikes. Multiple buildings are visibly damaged or destroyed.
Satellite image (c) 2025 Maxar Technologies.
Intelligence officials concluded that Iran has not been rebuilding its nuclear enrichment capabilities since they were destroyed in a June 2025 US-Israeli attack. Tulsi Gabbard testified that Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme was “obliterated” in Operation Midnight Hammer and there have been no efforts to rebuild it.Despite heavy attacks that included killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, US intelligence assesses that Iran’s regime remains functional but significantly weakened.US intelligence concluded on Wednesday that Iran was not rebuilding nuclear enrichment capacities that were destroyed in a June 2025 US-Israeli attack, contradicting US President Donald Trump’s justifications for his ongoing war.
Tulsi Gabbard, a Trump ally who is director of national intelligence, shared the conclusion in written testimony as part of an annual threat assessment but did not repeat the finding when speaking to senators.
“As a result of Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was obliterated. There has been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability,” Gabbard said in the testimony to the Senate intelligence committee.
Pressed by a Democratic senator on why she did not repeat the conclusion on camera, Gabbard said that she did not have enough time to read the full testimony at the hearing, but did not deny the assessment.
Trump has repeatedly said that he ordered the attack on Iran alongside Israel on 28 February due to an “imminent threat.”
READ | US strikes against Iran not aimed at regime change, Pentagon chief says
Trump said after the June 2025 bombing that the United States had completely destroyed Iran’s nuclear sites, but since his latest war, he has said that Tehran was weeks away from a nuclear bomb, a finding not shared by most observers, despite ongoing talks on a nuclear deal.
A senior aide to Gabbard - who herself, as a congresswoman, had led opposition to war with Iran - resigned on Tuesday, saying there was no “imminent threat” and that Trump was misled by Israel and media.
In her remarks to senators, Gabbard said Iran had been suffering heavy blows in the weeks of attacks - which included the killing of the longtime supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - but that the Islamic republic was still functioning.
The US intelligence community “assesses the regime in Iran to be intact but largely degraded due to attacks on its leadership and military capabilities,” Gabbard said.
“If a hostile regime survives, it will likely seek to begin a years-long effort to rebuild its military, missiles, and UAV forces,” Gabbard said, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.
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