TEL AVIV :  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a “historic victory” against Iran despite a US intelligence report concluding that American strikes set back Tehran’s nuclear program by just a few months.

Iran and Israel agreed to a ceasefire on Tuesday, ending 12 days of tit-for-tat strikes, after US President Donald Trump joined the conflict with bunker-busting bombs over the weekend that he said destroyed key Iranian nuclear sites.

A classified preliminary US intelligence report, however, concluded that American strikes on Iran set back its nuclear program by just a few months.

Trump rebuffed that claim on Tuesday, posting on his Truth Social account that “THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED!”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the authenticity of the assessment but said it was “flat-out wrong.”

In an address to the nation after the ceasefire announcement, Netanyahu said, “Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.”
“We have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project,” he said. “And if anyone in Iran tries to rebuild it, we will act with the same determination, with the same intensity, to foil any attempt.”

Israel had said its bombing campaign, which began on June 13, was aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon — an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.

Israel’s military said that its strikes had set back Iran’s nuclear program “by years.” After Trump angrily berated both sides for early violations of the truce on Tuesday, Tehran announced it would respect the terms of the deal if Israel did the same, while Israel said it had refrained from further strikes.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country was willing to return to negotiations over its nuclear program, but that Iran would continue to “assert its legitimate rights” to the peaceful use of atomic energy.