Iran's nuclear program has been "very, very delayed" by recent strikes by the United States and Israel, according to France's foreign intelligence chief, Nicolas Lerner, AFP reports.
The assertion by the head of the DGSE French spy agency, made on Tuesday, weighs into the ongoing debate regarding the true extent of the damage inflicted upon Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
US President Donald Trump has previously stated that Iran's key nuclear facilities were "obliterated" following last month's air strikes.
When asked about the precise delay to Iran's nuclear program, Lerner stated, "Undeniably various months, certainly."
He elaborated on the impact, telling French news channel LCI, "Our assessment today is that every stage of the process," spanning from uranium enrichment to the design of a nuclear warhead and its mounting on a missile, "was very seriously affected, very seriously damaged."
Lerner reiterated, "The Iranian nuclear program as we know it has been very, very delayed."
However, Lerner cautioned that this assessment "nevertheless... needs to be fine-tuned." He emphasized the inherent difficulty in immediate, comprehensive evaluations following such events, stating, "No intelligence service in the world was capable in the hours after these strikes of making a perfect, full evaluation of what happened."
The Pentagon has previously indicated that the strikes set back Iran's nuclear program by at least two years.
Lerner urged continued "caution," particularly concerning the unknown whereabouts of Iran's stockpiles of highly enriched uranium and the potential for Tehran to pursue a clandestine nuclear program. He noted, "There's consensus on the fact that the material -- the 450 kilograms of enriched uranium -- maybe a small part was destroyed, but that material remains in the hands of the regime."
Iran, which maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, has suspended cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog in the aftermath of the strikes.