No Known Intelligence that Iran Moved Uranium, Says U.S. Defence Secretary

Reuters

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speak during a press conference, June 26, 2025.

U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday, 26 June 2025, that he was unaware of any intelligence indicating that Iran had relocated any of its highly enriched uranium to protect it from US air strikes, amid ongoing questions about the status of Iran's nuclear programme.

U.S. military bombers conducted strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities early on Sunday local time, employing more than a dozen 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs.

The outcomes of the strikes are being closely monitored to assess how significantly they may have delayed Iran's nuclear ambitions, following President Donald Trump's assertion that the programme had been obliterated.

"I'm not aware of any intelligence that I've reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be, moved or otherwise," Hegseth told an often fiery news conference.

President Trump, who watched Hegseth's exchange with reporters, echoed his defense secretary, saying it would have taken too long to remove anything.

"The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out of (the) facility," Trump wrote on his social media platform, without providing evidence.

Several experts have cautioned that Iran likely moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of the deeply buried Fordow site before the strikes, and could be hiding it in unknown locations.

They noted satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showing "unusual activity" at Fordow on Thursday and Friday, with a long line of vehicles waiting outside an entrance to the facility. A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday most of the 60% highly enriched uranium had been moved to an undisclosed location before the attack.



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