Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth indicated on Thursday that the U.S. military considered launching further attacks against Iranian nuclear sites after the air and missile strikes over the weekend.
Hegseth spoke to reporters on Thursday after CNN first reported that a Defense Intelligence Agency assessment had found the strikes may not have destroyed Iran’s nuclear program, and may have only set it back by months. Other media outlets, including the The New York Times and The Washington Post, have reported on the agency’s findings.
“Actually, the report that was discussed, this preliminary report, was called a ‘restrike report,’” Hegseth said during Thursday’s Pentagon news briefing. “It comes to us to give us an assessment whether a target would need to be restruck, right? That’s the reason why. So, it’s based on [an] internal feedback loop that we’re supposed to have access to. Unfortunately, someone took advantage of that.”
When asked about Hegsteh’s comments and if the U.S. military is considering future strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, a U.S. official told Task & Purpose that “the assessments are ongoing, we will not speculate about future operations,” adding that Hegsteh had made it clear that “we plan and have options for every scenario.”
On Thursday, Hegseth described the recent U.S. strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities as “highly successful,” and he said the Defense Intelligence Agency report cited by news outlets was a “preliminary assessment,” which acknowledges that it takes weeks of collecting data to make a determination on the effectiveness of the strikes.
“There’s low confidence in this particular report,” Hegseth said. “It says in the report there are gaps in the information.”
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