• Trump claims he ‘saved Khamenei’s life’, vows to hit Iran if its nuclear ambitions persist
• Iranian foreign minister denies any plans for renewed nuclear talks
WASHINGTON: The US military did not use bunker buster bombs on one of Iran’s largest nuclear sites last weekend, because it is so deep that the bombs likely would not have been effective, the US’ top general told senators during a briefing on Thursday.
CNN reported that the comment by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine is the first known explanation given for why the US military did not use the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb against the Isfahan site in central Iran.
US officials believe Isfahan’s underground structures house nearly 60pc of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, which Iran would need in order to ever produce a nuclear weapon.
B-2 bombers dropped over a dozen bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites. But Isfahan was only struck by Tomahawk missiles launched from a US submarine.
The classified briefing to lawmakers was conducted by Caine, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, CNN reported.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy told CNN on Thursday night after receiving the briefing that some of Iran’s capabilities “are so far underground that we can never reach them. So they have the ability to move a lot of what has been saved into areas where there’s no American bombing capacity that can reach it.”
Separately, President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to bomb Iran again if it resumes efforts to enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels, and made the claim that he saved Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from an assassination, lashing out at the Iranian supreme leader for claiming victory in their recent conflict.
Asked at a White House news conference whether he would consider new bombing raids if Iran’s nuclear ambitions persist, Trump said, “Sure. Without question. Absolutely.”
He added, “I don’t believe that they’re going to go back into nuclear anytime soon. They spent over a trillion dollars on nuclear, and they never got it together, and nothing was moved from the site.”
In a fiery post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said: “I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the US Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life,”
Trump posted on Truth Social. “I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, ‘THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!’”
Trump said he had been working to ease sanctions on Tehran but reversed course after Khamenei’s defiant speech.
Meanwhile, Iran swiftly rejected Trump’s assertions that talks were imminent. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said there was “no plan” for new negotiations, directly contradicting the US president. “I would like to state clearly that no agreement, arrangement or conversation has been made to start new negotiations,” Araghchi said on state television.
