Iranian government officials in a phone call said that the U.S. military strikes against its nuclear facilities were not as damaging or extensive as they had expected, further undermining the Trump administration’s narrative that they were “completely and totally obliterated.” The Washington Post first reported the call, citing four people familiar with U.S. intelligence on the matter.
In the conversation that was meant to be private, Iranian government officials wondered why the strikes did not cause more widespread destruction.
The administration in a statement from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt essentially confirmed the existence of the call but called the paper’s reporting “shameful.”
“It’s shameful that The Washington Post is helping people commit felonies by publishing out-of-context leaks,” Leavitt said. “The notion that unnamed Iranian officials know what happened under hundreds of feet of rubble is nonsense. Their nuclear weapons program is over.”
The U.S. military targeted nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan and definitely caused damage, although how much damage is under debate among the intelligence community.
The news of the call broke on the same day an interview with Donald Trump aired where the president threatened to jail Democratic lawmakers who he says leaked intelligence information. He also said his administration would demand that journalists who reported on the leaks reveal their sources.
“We can find out [who leaked the intelligence],” Trump said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures. “If they want to, we can find out easily. You go up and tell the reporter, ‘National security, who gave it [to you]?’ You have to do that, and I suspect we’ll be doing things like that.”
Trump in those comments is referring to journalists from CNN and The New York Times. Both outlets reported on a leaked intelligence summary from the Pentagon that concluded the bombings closed off entrances to two facilities but that the structures underneath remained intact. The attacks only set Iran‘s nuclear program back months, the report said, contradicting the administration’s claims that their facilities were completely destroyed.
“It turned out, no, it was obliterated like nobody’s ever seen before,” Trump said in the interview that aired Sunday. “And that meant the end to their nuclear ambitions, at least for a period of time.”
