CIA chief told lawmakers Iran nuclear program set back years with
strikes on metal conversion site
[June 30, 2025]
By AAMER MADHANI
WASHINGTON (AP) — CIA Director John Ratcliffe told skeptical U.S.
lawmakers that American military strikes destroyed Iran's lone metal
conversion facility and in the process delivered a monumental setback to
Tehran’s nuclear program that would take years to overcome, a U.S.
official said Sunday.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the
sensitive intelligence, said Ratcliffe laid out the importance of the
strikes on the metal conversion facility during a classified hearing for
U.S. lawmakers last week.
Details about the private briefings surfaced as President Donald Trump
and his administration keep pushing back on questions from Democratic
lawmakers and others about how far Iran was set back by the strikes
before last Tuesday’s ceasefire with Israel took hold.
“It was obliterating like nobody’s ever seen before,” Trump said in an
interview on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” ”And that
meant the end to their nuclear ambitions, at least for a period of
time.”
Ratcliffe also told lawmakers that the intelligence community assessed
the vast majority of Iran's amassed enriched uranium likely remains
buried under the rubble at Isfahan and Fordo, two of the three key
nuclear facilities targeted by U.S. strikes.
But even if the uranium remains intact, the loss of its metal conversion
facility effectively has taken away Tehran's ability to build a bomb for
years to come, the official said.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said
Sunday on CBS' “Face the Nation” that the three Iranian sites with
“capabilities in terms of treatment, conversion and enrichment of
uranium have been destroyed to an important degree.”
But, he added, “some is still standing” and that because capabilities
remain, “if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again.”
He said assessing the full damage comes down to Iran allowing in
inspectors.
"Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared, and
there is nothing there," Grossi said.
Trump has insisted from just hours after three key targets were struck
by U.S. bunker-buster bombs and Tomahawk missiles that Iran's nuclear
program was “obliterated.”
His defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has said they were “destroyed.” A
preliminary report issued by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency,
meanwhile, said the strikes did significant damage to the Fordo, Natanz
and Isfahan sites, but did not totally destroy the facilities.
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CIA Director John Ratcliffe departs a classified briefing for
senators at the Capitol on Capitol Hill, Thursday, June 26, 2025, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
As a result of Israeli and U.S. strikes, Grossi says that “it is
clear that there has been severe damage, but it’s not total damage."
Israel claims it has set back Iran’s nuclear program by “many
years.”
The metal conversion facility that Ratcliffe said was destroyed was
located at the Isfahan nuclear facility. The process of transforming
enriched uranium gas into dense metal, or metallization, is a key
step in building the explosive core of a bomb.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio in comments at the NATO summit last
week also suggested that it was likely the U.S. strikes had
destroyed the metal conversion facility.
“You can’t do a nuclear weapon without a conversion facility," Rubio
said. "We can’t even find where it is, where it used to be on the
map. You can’t even find where it used to be because the whole thing
is just blackened out. It’s gone. It’s wiped out.”
The CIA director also stressed to lawmakers during the congressional
briefing that Iran’s air defense was shattered during the 12-day
assault. As a result, any attempt by Iran to rebuild its nuclear
program could now easily be thwarted by Israeli strikes that Iran
currently has little wherewithal to defend against, the official
said.
Ratcliffe's briefing to lawmakers on the U.S. findings appeared to
mesh with some of Israeli officials' battle damage assessments.
Israeli officials have determined that Iran's ability to enrich
uranium to a weapons-grade level was neutralized for a prolonged
period, according to a senior Israeli military official who was not
authorized to talk publicly about the matter.
Tehran's nuclear program also was significantly damaged by the
strikes killing key scientists, damage to Iran's missile production
industry and the battering of Iran's aerial defense system,
according to the Israeli's assessment.
Grossi, and some Democrats, note that Iran still has the know-how.
“You cannot undo the knowledge that you have or the capacities that
you have,” Grossi said, emphasizing the need to come to a diplomatic
deal on the country's nuclear program.
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AP writer Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this
report.
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