WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has said that recent US airstrikes have set back Iran’s nuclear programme by up to two years.
The strikes, carried out on June 22, targeted three key nuclear sites in Iran.
A Pentagon spokesman on Wednesday told reporters that the damage was likely closer to a full two-year delay.
Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, offered the estimate at a briefing to reporters, adding that the official estimate was “probably closer to two years.”
US military bombers carried out strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22 using more than a dozen 30,000-pound (13,600-kg) bunker-buster bombs.
The results of the strikes are being closely watched to see how far they may have set back Iran’s nuclear programme, after President Donald Trump said it had been obliterated.
Over the weekend, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog Rafael Grossi said that Iran could be producing enriched uranium in a few months, raising doubts about how effective US strikes to destroy Tehran’s nuclear programme have been.