Iran could recover some uranium, but Israel is watching, Israeli official says

Israel believes at least some of Iran’s highly enriched uranium was buried by U.S. strikes and not destroyed or moved beforehand.

WASHINGTON — Israel believes at least some of Iran’s highly enriched uranium was buried beneath Iran’s Isfahan facility by U.S. strikes and not destroyed or moved beforehand, a senior Israeli government official said in Washington on Wednesday night. But it is effectively unreachable, the official said, because Israel is watching, and if it believes Iran is trying to dig up the material, it will not hesitate to conduct new strikes.

Asked about Israel’s conclusion regarding the uranium at Isfahan, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told NBC News in a statement: “As President Trump has said many times, Operation Midnight Hammer totally obliterated Iran’s nuclear facilities. The entire world is safer thanks to his decisive leadership.”

In a lengthy briefing with reporters Wednesday night, the senior Israeli government official said Israel decided to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities because of intelligence it had that Tehran had begun rapidly and secretly proceeding to weaponize its enriched uranium after Israel’s targeted assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in September.

The official said that Israel had shared the intelligence with President Donald Trump but was preparing to strike with or without a green light or participation from the United States and that American support was not a condition for Israel’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The official would not specify the source of the intelligence.