Iran hits back at Trump's claims about US strike, says nuclear program will resume 'without interruption'

WASHINGTON, DC: Just two days after the US launched surprise strikes on Iran’s key nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, Iran is defiantly announcing that its nuclear program is still alive and kicking.

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization told state media, “The nuclear program of Iran will resume without interruption, and we are ready to restart enrichment; our program will not stop,” as reported by The Daily Beast. 

Reports say core components of Iran's nuclear program weren’t destroyed by Donald Trump's strikes

The bombings over the weekend were meant to cripple Iran’s nuclear infrastructure — or at least that’s what the US administration hoped. But as the dust settles, there are serious questions about whether those strikes even worked.

According to a leaked intel assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the strikes only set Iran’s nuclear timeline back by months. Furthermore, the report claimed the core components of the program weren’t destroyed. That analysis, obtained by CNN, has already been brushed aside by the White House.

Meanwhile, experts are speculating that Iran may have possibly stashed away its near-weapons-grade uranium somewhere off the radar before the bombs were dropped.

Kelsey Davenport from the Arms Control Association said Trump’s decision to strike Iran was “a reckless, irresponsible escalation that is likely to push Iran closer to nuclear weapons in the long term.”

“The strikes did damage key Iranian nuclear facilities, like the underground Fordo enrichment site. But Tehran had ample time prior to the strikes to remove its stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium to a covert location, and it’s likely that they did so,” she added.

Congress kept in the dark about Iran strikes

The decision to strike Iran came with zero congressional approval, and now lawmakers are demanding answers.

The White House was supposed to give a classified briefing on Tuesday, June 24, but that got kicked down the road to Thursday. Needless to say, that did not go over well on Capitol Hill.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was fuming. “Senators deserve full transparency. There is a legal obligation for the administration to inform Congress about precisely what is happening,” he said, before asking, “What are they afraid of? Why won’t they engage Congress in the critical details?”

The Democrat called the delay "evasive” and “outrageous," as quoted by The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump says Iran is 'not going to have a nuclear weapon'

All this chaos goes back to June 13, when Israel launched a military offensive against Iran and ultimately ended up dragging the US into it. After a rocky few days where even Trump couldn’t get his messaging straight, he finally confirmed on Monday that Iran and Israel had agreed to a ceasefire.

Trump swore it would hold, but both sides reportedly issued fresh missile launches after the ceasefire came into effect on Tuesday. 

“They’re tired of it,” Trump told reporters. “I think they don’t want it to happen again. And Iran’s not going to have a nuclear weapon by the way; I think it’s the last thing on their mind right now.”

He doubled down as he headed off to the NATO summit in the Netherlands. “They’re not going to have enrichment, and they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon, and they know that," Trump insisted.

But the Iranian atomic agency contradicted that narrative within 48 hours.