Israeli intelligence rejects Netanyahu’s request to back claim Iran’s nuclear program was completely destroyed: Report

Israel’s intelligence agencies rejected a request from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to endorse the government’s claim that Iran’s nuclear program had been “completely” destroyed, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported Saturday, Anadolu reports.

According to the newspaper, Netanyahu’s office pressured security, intelligence and military officials to issue an assessment stating that Iran’s nuclear facilities had been completely destroyed, reinforcing a claim made by US President Donald Trump following US strikes on Iran in June 2025.

The confrontation reportedly took place hours after the end of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran.

From June 13 to June 24, 2025, Israel, with US backing, carried out a military campaign against Iran targeting military infrastructure, missile launch sites and nuclear facilities, while also assassinating senior military commanders and nuclear scientists.

The newspaper said Trump was the first to claim Iran’s nuclear program had been destroyed. Netanyahu later declared that two “existential threats” to Israel. Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missiles. had been eliminated.

“There was one small problem with that statement. It simply wasn’t true,” the newspaper said, adding that the extent of the damage could not yet be accurately assessed.

“No intelligence official exercising a reasonable degree of professionalism believed that Iran’s nuclear program had been eliminated,” the report said.

According to the newspaper, Netanyahu’s office then intensified pressure on the security establishment, military and intelligence agencies to produce an assessment confirming the facilities had been destroyed.

Israel’s preliminary assessments, based on satellite imagery, drone surveillance and other intelligence, concluded that the damage was “significant, but not complete, and certainly did not amount to total destruction,” it said.

A senior intelligence official reportedly refused to sign the requested assessment, telling his superior: “I cannot sign this.”

The official argued that intelligence agencies lacked sufficient information to determine the full extent of the damage and warned that endorsing an inaccurate assessment would undermine their professional credibility.

According to the report, the White House sought evidence to counter an internal Pentagon assessment, first reported by The New York Times, that concluded the damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities was far from decisive.

The newspaper said Netanyahu’s office then sought support from Israeli institutions to reinforce the US position.

Brig. Gen. Moshe Edri, director general of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, agreed to help draft a document but sought approval from the commission’s senior scientists, it said.