GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War Day 629

So Many Opinions

What’s Left

Now that Iran and Israel appear to have stopped attacking each other the news cycle seems to center around whether Iran’s nuclear program was destroyed or just set back as we’re told in a report from The Jerusalem Post:

There is no question that the storage facilities for the 400kg highly enriched Iranian uranium have been hit in the US and Israeli airstrikes; however, it is not known how much uranium was destroyed nor if Iran can reach the uranium that was not damaged, Israeli officials told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday.

Israel is still confirming just how much damage was done:

Israeli officials told the Post that they are almost certain Iran was not able to take uranium out of the nuclear enrichment facilities before or after the strikes. Still, it is impossible to say with complete certainty.

US President Trump stated that the uranium was buried in the sites after the strikes:

US President Donald Trump said earlier at a press conference at the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, that all the enriched uranium Iran had was inside the sites that were bombed. "It is very difficult to move it," he said.

The IDF is still working on confirming things, though:

Earlier this week, IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin said the Israeli military is closely monitoring the possibility of Iran moving its enriched uranium from sites that are damaged or destroyed to other sites, in response to a question asked during a press conference on Sunday.

Iran wants the world to think that they moved the uranium ahead of time:

Iran had claimed in the past that it had moved enriched uranium from Fordow to other sites, as reported by The New York Times. The report added that 880 pounds of enriched uranium had been removed to 60% purity, below the 90% needed for nuclear weapons. Some 60% enriched fuel was stored at the nuclear facility in Isfahan. Satellite imagery taken days before US strikes on the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan facilities showed trucks lining up on the road adjacent to the facility, nestled in Iran’s mountains.

The US Vice President couldn’t or wouldn’t verify those stories:

US Vice President JD Vance was unable to confirm the status of Iran's stockpile in an ABC News interview after Trump ordered airstrikes early on Sunday morning.

When asked about the status of Iran's 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium, Vance said that the Trump administration is "going to work in the coming weeks to ensure that we do something with that fuel, and that’s one of the things that we’re going to have conversations with the Iranians about.

The IAEA added that Iran found ways to hide the uranium:

International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi previously noted that “Iran has made no secret that they have protected this material,” and that the fuel was last seen by his inspectors just before Israeli attacks on Iran.

I can’t see Israel or the US letting any elements of the nuclear program survive so we will see.

Iran Was Set Back

Even the Iranians admit that their nuclear sites were badly damaged, but the assessments of how much their nuclear program was damaged are all over the map as we see in a report from The Times Of Israel:

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei on Wednesday confirmed the country’s nuclear facilities had been “badly damaged” in American strikes over the weekend, amid clashing evaluations on the extent of the success of operations against Tehran’s nuclear program.

Iran was understandably tight lipped about the details of their nuclear program:

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Baghaei refused to go into detail but conceded the Sunday strikes by American B-2 bombers using bunker-buster bombs had been significant.

“Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure,” he said.

Israel thinks the program won’t be back for some time, but permanently damaged:

Israeli intelligence officials told CNN on Wednesday that the IDF strikes on Iran had set back Tehran’s nuclear program by two years if reconstruction of the program is not impeded.

Their assessment was similar to Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s before the US launched strikes on Sunday, and the IDF’s at the end of the war, which said it was still “too early” to assess the damage but asserted that the program had been set back by years. Conclusive findings may take months, if they are obtained at all, a source told the US network.

Some reports said that the Iranian program was only slowed down and could be back very quickly, news the White House dismissed:

Another pessimistic report on Tuesday said that a preliminary US intelligence assessment has determined that US strikes have set back Tehran’s program by only a matter of months.

Additionally, a leaked US intelligence report suggested this week that the strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities did not destroy their underground components, and that much of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium may already have been spirited out of the sites before they were bombed. The White House has rejected the report’s findings, while condemning the leak.

Reports of the IDF being in Iran after the strikes also came out:

However, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed that Israeli agents sent into Fordo after the US strikes said that the key nuclear site had been “obliterated.” Israeli officials told the Kan public broadcaster that they were unaware of any Israeli operation at the site.

All of these so-called reports are all over the map because everyone has an agenda to support. Getting the real truth will only happen when Iran allows inspectors to actually look at the sites and that might be part of the upcoming talks between the US and Iran. If I was Israel I would demand that Iran allow people to actually see the damage and then fess up about the uranium stockpiles if they really exist. So were the nuclear sites totally destroyed? Can Iran actually start their program again? Will they be able to produce ballistic missiles on their own? So much of these questions will allow social media to muse and make unfounded claims. As far as I can tell, Bible prophecies about Iran joining a coalition of nations to attack Israel is still in play. However, as Christians we need to pray for the Iranian people to continue to convert to Christianity and freedom of religion to be part of any actions taken there. Let’s pray for the big picture.