US strikes on Iran believed to have set back nuke program by two years

WASHINGTON — Saturday’s US strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities set back the Islamic Republic’s atomic weapons capabilities by roughly two years, American and Israeli officials and experts tell The Post – adding that Tehran remains “highly incentivized” to pursue a bomb.While President Trump vowed Tuesday morning that Tehran will “never rebuild” its nuclear weapons program, Iran’s atomic chief claimed that arrangements are already being made to restore the bombed sites at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz.“The plan is to prevent interruptions in the process of production and services,” Mohammad Eslami of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran told Iran’s state-owned Mehr News, adding that Tehran had been prepared for airstrikes by the US and Israel to damage the sites.Exact assessments of the damage — which require access to the sites that Iran is unwilling to grant — may never take place.But multiple nuclear physicists and national security analysts said the strikes — paired with Israel’s “Operation Rising Lion” campaign targeting top Iranian scientists and military officials — were able to push back Tehran’s nuclear timeline to months to years away from making a weapon rather than days to weeks.“Iran likely requires months, if not years, to restore an option to build nuclear weapons,” said Andrea Stricker, deputy director of the Foundation for Defending Democracies’ nonproliferation and biodefense program.“Still, Tehran is highly incentivized to cobble together a crash nuclear weapons effort using what it has.”“The United States and Israel may need to conduct additional strikes to ensure that threat is eliminated,” Stricker added.

“Alternatively, or alongside, Washington can insist Iran to agree to a deal for the full, verifiable, and permanent dismantlement of its nuclear weapons program and remaining assets.”Israelis are highly concerned that Iran will reconstitute its program, though there is a general ...