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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/07/25/israel-us-attack-irans-nuclear-program-destroyed/
Tehran's Infrastructure to Finish a Bomb Is Shattered
(Washington Post) David Ignatius - There's growing evidence that Iran's nuclear program suffered such severe damage that it will be neutered for at least a year, and probably far longer. "Iran is no longer a threshold nuclear state," one well-informed Israeli source told me. He said that Iran would now require at least one to two years to build a deliverable nuclear weapon, assuming it could somehow hide its activities. Israeli and American sources said the bombing campaign, in addition to destroying many of the Iranian centrifuges that enrich uranium, shattered most elements of Iran's aggressive program to prepare to weaponize that uranium. The most devastating aspect of Israel's campaign may have been its targeting of Iran's leading nuclear scientists. Sources said strikes in the first hours of the war killed all of Iran's first and second tier of physicists and other nuclear scientists, as well as most of the third tier. That's a massive loss of talent, and Israeli officials believe it will deter younger Iranian scientists from participating in a program that proved to be a death sentence. An Israeli source said strikes buried a site where Iran had hidden 400 kg. of highly enriched uranium. Israeli attacks also destroyed logistical foundations of the nuclear program, including its headquarters, archives, laboratories and testing equipment.