US President Donald Trump told Congress this week that the Iranian sites bombed by the US housed a "nuclear weapons development programme," even though US spy agencies have said no such programme existed.
Trump's assertion has sparked inquiries regarding US intelligence support for his decision to authorise strikes on Iran.
The Republican president made the assertion in a letter dated Monday to House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, a key ally, and it was posted on the White House's website.
"United States forces conducted a precision strike against three nuclear facilities in Iran used by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for its nuclear weapons development program," Trump wrote.
No evidence
Almost every organisation and institution monitoring Iran's nuclear programme concluded that there is no evidence that Tehran is pursuing a nuclear weapon.
The International Atomic Energy Agency Director General, Rafael Grossi, said in an interview that the agency had no proof that Tehran has a systematic effort to move into a nuclear weapon.
The most recent US assessment, presented to Congress in March by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, said Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had not ordered the restarting of a nuclear-weapons effort shuttered in 2003.
"The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and Supreme Leader Khomeini has not authorised the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003," the testimony on the National Intelligence Website reads.
Gabbard, the former Democrat, took to social media on Friday and said the testimony was taken out of context, asserting that she and Trump are on the same page.
"The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division," Gabbard said on X.
Iran insists that its nuclear programme is for peaceful uses.
Former US President George Bush justified the invasion of Iraq in 2003 by saying intelligence showed the country had weapons of mass destruction. This was later discredited and prompted a political backlash.
 
Bush himself admitted later that there were no WMDs in Iraq. He was never charged with anything.
'I don't care what she said'
Trump first cast doubt on intelligence about Iran's nuclear program last week, when he repudiated the assessment that Gabbard delivered to Congress.
"I don't care what she said. I think they were very close to having one," Trump told reporters, referring to a nuclear weapon.
According to unclassified US intelligence reports compiled before the strikes, Iran closed a nuclear weapons programme in 2003 — a conclusion shared by the UN nuclear watchdog — and has not mastered all of the technologies required.
But Tehran does have the expertise to build a warhead at some point, according to the reports.
The US attacked three Iranian nuclear sites — Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow — on Sunday.
Trump and other top officials said the sites were obliterated. But a preliminary US intelligence assessment found the attack set back Tehran's programme by only months.
 
A US official who read the assessment said it contained a number of caveats, and a more refined report was expected in the coming days and weeks.
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Source: TRT