June 25, 2025 – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, accompanying President Donald Trump at the ongoing NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, stated today that Iran is "much further away from a nuclear weapon" following the recent American military strikes on its main nuclear sites.
Secretary Rubio's assertion comes amidst conflicting assessments regarding the effectiveness of the strikes, which targeted Iran's Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities over the weekend. While President Trump has vehemently claimed the sites were "completely destroyed," preliminary U.S. intelligence reports, widely covered by media outlets like CNN and The New York Times yesterday, suggested the damage might only set back Iran's program by a few months.
"The bottom line is, they are much further away from a nuclear weapon today than they were before the president took this bold action," Rubio told Politico. He dismissed the media reports on the intelligence assessment as "false" and "mischaracterised," emphasizing that "significant, very significant, substantial damage was done to a variety of different components."
Rubio further elaborated that much of the damage to Iran's deeply buried facilities, such as Fordow, occurred "deep underground," facilitated by the use of "penetrator weaponry." He expressed high confidence in the outcome, noting, "It is in far worse shape today than it was a week ago because of U.S. actions and because some of the actions the Israelis took."
He also referenced comments from the Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who reportedly stated that "the Iran nuclear program looks – there was before the attack and after the attack, and they're dramatically different things."
The Secretary of State reiterated that the goal of the strikes was not regime change, but rather to specifically target and degrade Iran's nuclear program. "The President set out three nuclear sites. He targeted them. He says I want a one-off, a campaign in which we go in, wipe out three nuclear – hit three nuclear sites, hit them hard, and get out without any loss of life," Rubio said, adding that "the mission was achieved – and without any escalation."
Rubio's remarks align with the administration's narrative that the military action was a decisive success in deterring Iran's nuclear ambitions and helped bring about the fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel. The conflicting intelligence assessments, however, continue to fuel an intense debate over the long-term implications of the strikes.
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