A senior Israeli official has warned that Iran could still attempt to retrieve enriched uranium buried beneath its nuclear facility in Isfahan, one of three sites targeted in last month’s US military operation.
The comment raises new questions about the long-term impact of “Operation Midnight Hammer,” a coordinated strike that the Trump administration claims “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear programme.
Speaking to US reporters during a closed-door briefing in Washington, the unnamed Israeli official said that although reaching the material buried at Isfahan would be extremely difficult, any such attempt by Tehran would likely trigger renewed Israeli military action. “Any Iranian attempt to recover the material would probably be detected,” the official stated.
The facility in Isfahan was hit by submarine-launched cruise missiles on June 22, as part of a broader campaign that also targeted nuclear sites at Fordo and Natanz. While Israel assesses that the strikes have set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions by two years, not all officials are convinced of the operation’s finality.
President Donald Trump and members of his administration have repeatedly claimed that the air and missile strikes completely destroyed Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. “Operation Midnight Hammer totally obliterated Iran’s nuclear facilities,” said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly, echoing Trump’s frequent assertions. “The entire world is safer thanks to his decisive leadership.”
However, US intelligence agencies have expressed more caution. A preliminary assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency, leaked to the media, concluded that while all three sites suffered significant damage, they were not entirely destroyed. CIA Director John Ratcliffe told lawmakers in late June that the loss of Iran’s only facility capable of producing metallic uranium had crippled its ability to build a nuclear weapon — though he stopped short of declaring a complete elimination of its programme.
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), shared a similarly nuanced view. In an interview with CBS, Grossi stated that although the sites were “destroyed to an important degree,” portions might remain intact. “Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared, and there is nothing there,” he said.
Iran, for its part, denies it is pursuing nuclear weapons, maintaining that its uranium enrichment is for peaceful purposes. In an interview with conservative US commentator Tucker Carlson, Iranian President Mahmoud Pezeshkian acknowledged that the facilities were “severely damaged” and that Iran currently lacks access to assess the full extent of the destruction.
The Israeli official’s remarks highlight lingering concerns that, despite the effectiveness of the June strikes, Iran’s nuclear infrastructure may not have been entirely neutralised—and that the risk of a renewed nuclear escalation has not been completely eliminated.
Melissa Enoch
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