Netanyahu pressured Israeli intelligence to declare Iran's nuclear program destroyed: Report
Israeli intelligence agencies have rejected a request from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to issue an assessment declaring Iran’s nuclear program had been completely destroyed, says a report.
Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Saturday that Israeli intelligence assessments based on satellite imagery, drone surveillance and other sources concluded that the damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities was “significant, but not complete,” and did not support claims by either Israel or the United States that the country’s nuclear program had been “eliminated.”
The report said Israeli nuclear scientists insisted on including a final caveat that any long-term impact would depend on preventing Iran from regaining access to nuclear material.
They argued that Iran’s remaining stockpile of approximately 440 kilograms of fissile material meant it could not be claimed that the country’s nuclear program had been destroyed.
The US and Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities during the 12-day war against the country in June 2025.
US President Donald Trump was the first to claim that Iran’s nuclear program had been “obliterated.” Netanyahu later echoed the claim, saying Israel had eliminated Iran’s nuclear program and its ballistic missile capabilities.
“There was one small problem with that statement,” Yedioth Ahronoth wrote. “It simply wasn’t true.”
“No intelligence official exercising a reasonable degree of professionalism believed that Iran’s nuclear program had been eliminated,” the newspaper wrote.
According to the report, a senior intelligence official warned Netanyahu’s office that endorsing such a conclusion would undermine the credibility of Israel’s intelligence community, arguing that there was insufficient information to determine the full extent of the damage.
Iran has repeatedly rejected US and Israeli allegations that it is pursuing nuclear weapons, maintaining that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and operates under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.
The Iranian mission to the United Nations Office in Vienna said recently that repeating the “Big Lie” about Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons would not change the facts on the ground.
It noted that Netanyahu has been making the same allegation for more than three decades without presenting evidence that Iran has diverted its civilian nuclear program toward military purposes.
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