WASHINGTON, July 03 (AFP): US intelligence assessments indicate that strikes on Iranian nuclear sites set the country's atomic program back by up to two years, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
"We have degraded their program by one to two years at least-intel assessments inside the (Defense) Department assess that," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told journalists, later adding: "We're thinking probably closer to two years."
France says Iran sanctions decision
depends on detainees' release
France said on Thursday it would decide whether to reimpose sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme depending on whether Tehran released two French detainees charged with spying for Israel.
"Freeing Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris is an absolute priority for us," Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.
"We have always told our interlocutors from the Iranian regime that any decisions on sanctions will be conditional on resolving this issue."
Iran officially suspended its cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog on Wednesday.
The move came after a 12-day conflict last month between Iran and Israel, which saw unprecedented Israeli and US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities and sharply escalated tensions between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The United States and other Western countries, along with Israel, accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon.
Tehran denies that, but has gradually broken away from its commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal it struck with world powers, after the United States pulled out of it in 2018.
Israel has maintained ambiguity about its own atomic arsenal, neither officially confirming nor denying it exists, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates its arsenal amounts to 90 nuclear warheads.
US strikes set back Iran N programme by 2 yrs: Pentagon
FE Team | Published: July 04, 2025 00:29:50
US strikes set back Iran N programme by 2 yrs: Pentagon
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