Analysts warn that the Iranian regime can still keep nuclear ambitions after the “ erased sites ”

President Donald Trump said last week that Iranian underground nuclear installations bombed by the United States were “erased”, while the United States and Israeli strikes have “monumental damage to all nuclear sites in Iran”.

The American Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, echoes this message in a briefing, saying that “the CIA can confirm that a credible corpus of intelligence indicates that the Iran nuclear program has been seriously damaged by the recent targeted strikes”.

Israeli sources of intelligence have told Fox News Digital that strikes on Natanz, Fordow and Esfahan have caused serious and perhaps irreversible damage to the known enrichment infrastructure of Iran. “We have struck the heart of their abilities,” said an official.

New satellite images show continuous activity in the Fordo nuclear complex

President Donald Trump arrives at the White House on June 9, 2025. (Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, inc)

But despite the overwhelming success of the mission, questions remain on what survived – and what could happen. Analysts warn that if Iran’s declared installations have been widely destroyed, secret elements of the program may still exist and enriched uranium stocks could resurface.

The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA), Rafael Grossi, said in a Interview with CBS Saturday, although “it is clear that what happened in particular in Fordow, Natanz, (and) Isfahan – where Iran had, and still has to some extent, capacities in terms of treatment, conversion and enrichment of uranium – was destroyed to an important extent”, the threat remains.

Maxar Technologies imaging taken on June 29, 2025, Capture the consequences of American and Israeli strikes on the Iranian installation of Ford-Uranium, revealing damaged tunnels and current repair operations. (Maxar Technologies)

Nuclear experts claim that although Iran’s nuclear progress has been treated a historic blow, the regime can always keep technical know -how and residual capacities to reconstruct its program over time – especially if it chooses to do the darkness.

One Detailed assessment published Tuesday Through the Institute for International Sciences and Security (ISIS), noted that operation Israel Rising Lion, followed by the strikes of American bunker, “actually destroyed the program of the enrichment of the centrifuge of Iran”. But the authors David Albright and Spencer Faragasso have warned that “residues such as 60%, 20% and 3 to 5% actions have enriched uranium and manufactured centrifuges but not yet installed … represent a threat because they can be used in the future to produce weapon quality uranium”.

A map of Iranian nuclear installations attacked and “erased” by the United States on June 22, 2025. (Fox News)

Jonathan Ruhe, director of foreign policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (Jinsa), echoes this concern in an interview with Fox News Digital.

“The threat is now very well reduced,” said Ruhe. “But the threat from now on will be much more difficult to detect because Iran could try to secretly rebuild. They do not need a lot of space or time to enrich 60% to 90%. And the IAEA said for years that Iran probably retains a secret capacity.”

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Ruhe added that even if Israeli information was probably aware of the attempts to move uranium before strikes, “any planning hypothesis in the future must consider the residual capacity of Iran – even if it has decreased”.

The supreme chief of Iran, Ali Khamenei in Tehran, March 21, 2025. (Iranian Leader Press Office / Handout / Anadolu via Getty Images)

John Spencer, president of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute, said that the criticisms that argue that the program was not completely destroyed on the situation as a whole.

“Can everything be rebuilt ultimately? Of course. But there is no doubt that the program has been canceled – years, if not more,” Spencer told Fox News Digital. “People are attached to the number of uranium books.

Centrifugal machines in the enrichment installation of Natanz Uranium in the center of Iran, in a photo published on November 5, 2019. (Iran’s atomic energy organization via AP, file)

Dr. or Rabinowitz, nuclear proliferator at Hebrew University and Associate Professor in Stanford, has noted that many unknowns remain.

“There is not yet an answer verified to what has happened to uranium enriched by 60% – or other raw materials at 20% or 3.5%,” said Rabinowitz. “If Iran has access to advanced centrifuges, they could theory enrich the quality of weapons – but we do not know how many centrifuges have survived or in what condition they are.”

A B-2 bomber arrives at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, Sunday June 22, 2025. (Photo / David Smith)

She also explained that even if Iran keeps the material, converting uranium gas into metal for a bomb requires specialized installation. “From what we know, this conversion installation in Isfahan has been bombed. Without it, Iran faces an important bottleneck,” she said. But she warned that nuclear weapons technology is not insurmountable: “It is the science of the 1940s. If North Korea could do so, Iran could also – possibly.”

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According to the Islamic State report, “significant damage” has been confirmed in almost all large Iranian nuclear and missile installations, including the destruction of uranium metal conversion factories, fuel manufacturing centers and the IR-40 ARAK LOUGHT Water reactor. The report noted that the Israeli and American strikes “made the Fordow inoperable fordow site”, citing the high resolution of the deep penetration of the bunker.

An Israeli fighter plane takes off for strikes in Tehran. (IDF)

Rabinowitz also stressed that the image of intelligence always develops in real time. “The Israelis and the Americans are now working hard to generate the most precise image of intelligence as possible,” she said. “Without having my own sources in Mossad, I can guarantee that the Israelis monitor Iranian internal communications, trying to understand what the Iranians have understood. As they learn more, Israel and the United States”

While the debate continues on the question of whether the strikes were sufficient to definitively deactivate the nuclear ambitions of Iran, the analysts agree on one point: the hypothesis of Iran that it could advance without consequences.

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Friday, during a press conference. Trump was asked if he would bomb Iran’s nuclear program again if it was restarted. He told journalists: “Of course, of course.”