Satellite images show damage from US strikes on Iran’s Fordow nuclear site | Interactive News | Al Jazeera

Why are the US and Israel attacking Iran? What we know so far

"The US and Israel have bombed multiple Iranian cities, including capital Tehran. Iran hits back, launching missiles at Israel, and US bases.

Al Jazeera Staff

A plume of smoke rises following a reported explosion in Tehran [Atta Kenare/AFP]

The United States and Israel have struck multiple locations across Iran, including the capital, Tehran, in what US President Donald Trump described as “major combat operations”.

The attacks come amid negotiations between the US and Iran over the latter’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programmes, after weeks of mounting threats from Trump – and eight months after the US and Israel waged a 12-day war against Iran.

Iran has struck back with missiles aimed at northern Israel and at US military bases in the Middle East. Details of casualties and damage in Iran and Israel are sparse at the moment.

Here’s what we know so far:

What happened in Iran?

At about 9:27am (06:27 GMT), Iran’s Fars news agency reported a series of explosions in the capital, Tehran.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in western Tehran said he heard two explosions, while videos shared on social media showed smoke rising from several parts of the city.

Israel first announced that it had launched missile strikes on targets inside Iran.

A US official told Al Jazeera that the strikes were carried out as part of a joint military operation with Israel. In recent weeks, Washington has assembled a large fleet of fighter jets and warships in the region, its most significant military buildup there since the Iraq War.

Trump described the operation as “massive and ongoing”.

The US Department of Defense later said the mission was named “Operation Epic Fury”, in the first public statement from the US military since the start of the joint US-Israeli attack.

Where in Iran have the US and Israel attacked?

Several missiles struck University Street and the Jomhouri area in Tehran, and close to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps headquarters, Fars reported.

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The Associated Press news agency reported that a strike in Iran’s capital happened near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported that explosions also occurred in Tehran’s northern Seyyed Khandan area.

Explosions have also been reported in the cities of Kermanshah, Qom, Tabriz, Isfahan, Ilam and Karaj, as well as in Lorestan province, according to local media.

What did Trump say?

While announcing “major combat operations”, Trump said the aim of the US campaign was to “destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground”.

“We are going to annihilate their navy,” Trump added.

Here are the key points of his message:

• The US has begun major combat operations in Iran, describing them as “massive and ongoing”.
• The stated aim is to eliminate what Washington calls imminent threats from the Iranian government.

Trump said the campaign’s military objectives include:

• Destroying Iran’s missile capabilities.
• Target Iran’s navy.
• Disrupting Iran-backed armed groups in the region.
• Making sure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.

He also laid out a warning-cum-offer to Iran’s military personnel. If they laid down their weapons, Trump said, he would ensure they had amnesty. But if they did not, he warned, they would face “certain death”. He acknowledged US forces could face casualties.

Reuters quoted a US official as saying that the Trump administration was planning a “multiday operation”.

The US president’s comments suggest that Trump was setting “the table for a revolution in Iran” — 73 years after the CIA orchestrated a coup against democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher reported from Washington.

“They’ve done it before. This time, they’re doing it with weapons and bombs rather than covertly through the CIA,” Fisher said. “It’s clear that this is going to be a continuous military operation, with Donald Trump accepting the fact that there may be casualties.”

How are the US and Israel justifying their attack on Iran?

US and Israeli attacks on Iran follow years of confrontation over Tehran’s nuclear programme and regional influence.

The two allies have long claimed that Iran’s advancing enrichment activities and missile capabilities pose a threat to them, and they have repeatedly warned that they could use force against Tehran. Iran has publicly committed — repeatedly — that it has no intention of building a nuclear bomb. Israel is the only Middle Eastern nation to have nuclear weapons.

In June last year, Israel and the US attacked Iranian nuclear and military sites, assassinating several senior commanders.

The current escalation began after Omani mediators announced progress in Geneva negotiations, where Iran had reportedly agreed to zero uranium stockpiling and full verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Both the US and Israel have also argued that this is an opportunity for Iranians to “take over” the government.

“When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations,” Trump said.

What is Iran’s response?

Iran retaliated by first launching missiles towards Israel, according to the Israeli military. Air-raid sirens sounded in several parts of the country, and explosions were reported in northern Israel.

“The public is requested to follow the instructions of the Home Front Command,” Israel’s military said in a statement. “At this time, the Israeli Air Force is operating to intercept and strike threats where necessary to remove the threat.”

But soon after, Iranian forces launched missiles at several locations linked to US military operations across the region, including:

• Al Udeid airbase in Qatar.
• Al-Salem airbase in Kuwait.
• Al-Dhafra airbase in the United Arab Emirates.
• The US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.
• Explosions were also heard in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• US bases were also reportedly attacked in Jordan

Earlier, Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security commission, threatened a “crushing” response. “We warned you!” Azizi wrote on social media. “Now you have started down a path whose end is no longer in your control.”⁠

What did Israel’s Netanyahu say?

In a statement, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the military operation “will continue as long as necessary.” He said the Israeli operation was called “Lion’s Roar”.

Where are Iran’s leaders?

It is not immediately clear where the 86-year-old Khamenei is. He hasn’t been seen publicly in days as tensions with the United States have grown.

Roads to Khamenei’s compound in downtown Tehran were shut down by authorities as blasts rang out across the capital.

Meanwhile, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency quoted a source in the presidential office as saying that President Masoud Pezeshkian was unharmed.

How has the world reacted?

• Oman: Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said that active and serious negotiations mediated by his country between Iran and the US were “yet again undermined” amid the ongoing escalation, and urged the US “not to get sucked in further”.

• Qatar condemned the Iranian attack, describing it as “a flagrant violation of its national sovereignty,” while adding that the country reserves the right of response in according with international law.
• The United Arab Emirates condemned the Iranian missile attacks that reportedly killed a Pakistani national earlier, warning of “grave consequences” if such violations continue.
• European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas described the situation as “perilous” and called for civilians to be protected and international law to be upheld.
• French President Emmanuel Macron warned that the conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran carries “grave consequences for international peace and security”, adding, “The current escalation is dangerous for everyone. It must stop.”
• In Russia, Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev criticised Trump, accusing Washington of using negotiations with Iran as a “cover operation” and questioning how the confrontation would unfold in the long term.
• The UK said that Iran must never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons and stood ready to defend its interests.
• Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said the country supports US efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and from further threatening international peace and security."

Satellite images show damage from US strikes on Iran’s Fordow nuclear site | Interactive News | Al Jazeera

THE US IRAN WAR IS ON - YouTube

THE US IRAN WAR IS ON - YouTube

BREAKING. US-IRAN WAR COMBAT UPDATE - February 28, 2026 - YouTube

 

US and Israel launch major attack on Iran as Tehran retaliates across the Middle East – live

Strikes reported across Middle East after US and Israel launch war on Iran

"Tehran carries out extensive retaliatory strikes on Israel and US air bases as region is plunged into new conflict

Jason Burkein Jerusalem, Emma Graham-Harrison in Tel Aviv, and Patrick Wintour in London

Smoke rises in Tehran after US and Israel launch joint attack on Iran – video

Israel and the US have launched a war on Iran, unleashing waves of air attacks across the country in an attempt to bring about regime change and plunging the region into a new conflict that could last weeks or months.

The sudden offensive triggered Iranian retaliatory strikes throughout the day across a swathe of the Middle East, with explosions reported in Israel, Bahrain, Syria, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

In a televised address, Donald Trump claimed Operation Epic Fury would end a security threat to the US and give Iranians a chance to “rise up” against their rulers. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the joint attack “will create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their destiny into their own hands” and “remove the yoke of tyranny”.

Iranian officials said they had not been surprised by the US attacks and that the consequences would “be long lasting and extensive. All scenarios were on the table including ones that were not previously considered.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threatened all US bases and interests in the region and said Iran’s retaliation would continue until “the enemy is decisively defeated”.

Vehicles burn in Tehran after US-Israeli strikes – video

The first wave of Israeli and US strikes early on Saturday morning targeted senior Iranian officials as well as air defence systems, Israeli military officials said, adding that the offensive would continue as long as necessary to make a change that would last “for years to come”. Satellite images showed extensive damage at the secure compound of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, though his whereabouts remains unclear.

A satellite image of the compound associated with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran appears to show several structures within the secured complex heavily damaged or destroyed. Photograph: Airbus/Soar Atlas

Analysts have repeatedly warned in recent weeks that an open-ended US or Israeli military offensive against Iran risked massive regional destabilisation and could bring chaos and violence across much of the Middle East.

Experts cautioned that the unfolding campaign, arguably the most ambitious US effort to alter political realities in the region since the 2003 Iraq war, would have grave economic and political consequences for the region and the world.

The strikes could rattle global markets, particularly if Iran is able to make the Strait of Hormuz unsafe for commercial traffic. A third of worldwide oil exports transported by sea passed through the strait in 2025.

The UN security council called a rare emergency meeting on Saturday to address “the situation in the Middle East”. It was due to start at 4pm (21.00 GMT). Dozens of countries issued statements calling for an immediate de-escalation.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said in a statement: “The escalation under way is dangerous for everyone. It must stop … The outbreak of war among the United States, Israel and Iran has serious consequences for peace and international security.”

In Iran, there were reports of dozens of explosions across the country including in Tehran. Iranian state media said dozens of pupils had been killed at a primary school in southern Iran.

In response, Iran launched waves of attacks at Israel throughout the day, prompting repeated alerts to Israelis to head for bomb shelters. Two minor injuries were reported, suggesting that most, if not all, incoming projectiles were successfully intercepted by air defence systems or stopped by Israel’s regional allies before reaching Israeli airspace.

Israelis enter an underground shelter in Haifa, northern Israel. Photograph: Rami Shlush/Reuters

Outside Israel, Iran’s retaliatory strikes appear to have focused primarily on US militarybases across the Middle East, though some other targets appeared to have been hit. There were reports of attacks in Abu Dhabi, Manama in Bahrain, and near Erbil in northern Iraq.

Experts said Tehran had many other options for retaliation, including cyber-warfare and the use of militant groups it has long supported, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen.

Smoke rises after blasts were heard in Manama, Bahrain. Photograph: Reuters

The US-Israeli offensive had been planned for months and involved close cooperation, Israeli military officials said, adding that 70,000 Israeli reservists had been called up, mainly air defence personnel.

The attack began hours after Trump said he was “not happy” about the latest negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme. On Thursday, diplomats from Oman mediated indirect talks between Iran and the US in Geneva and further technical negotiations were due to take place on Tuesday.

Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, who has been leading the negotiations, said on X: “Active and serious negotiations have yet again been undermined.” He was referring to similar Israeli-US attacks during nuclear negotiations last year..

“Neither the interests of the United States nor the cause of global peace are well served by this,” he said. “And I pray for the innocents who will suffer. I urge the United States not to get sucked in further.”

Oman called on Saturday for all parties to stop fighting, warning of the danger of the conflict escalating into something with “dire consequences for the region”.

The US had built up a large military presence in the region in recent weeks in preparation for an attack, including two aircraft carrier strike groups.

Trump, who repeatedly said he preferred a diplomatic solution to the crisis, told Iranians the “hour of your freedom is at hand”, urging them to rise up and “take over your government” in a video on his Truth Social platform. He offered the Iranian military “immunity” should they surrender, or “certain death” if not.

'Lay down your weapons': Trump warns Iran's armed forces as US launches military operation – video

Israel directly addressed Iranians in a Persian-language post on a dedicated Telegram channel.

“Our Iranian brothers and sisters, you are not alone!” the post said, calling on Iranians to upload photos and video of anti-regime protests. “Together we will return Iran to its glorious days.”

An Israeli official said the supreme leader and Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, were targeted but that the result of the strikes was not clear.

Israeli military officials and an Iranian source close to the establishment said that several political officials and senior commanders in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had been killed.

Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE and Israel have all closed their airspace, and international airlines have cancelled hundreds of flights to or around the region.

Smoke in the sky over Jerusalem, after Iran launched retaliatory strikes on Israel. Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters

The strikes create a dilemma for many allies of the US. While European leaders firmly oppose Iran’s nuclear programme and crackdowns by its hardline theocracy, they are loath to embrace unilateral military action by Trump that could breach international law and lead to a broader conflict.

It was unclear whether US allies were given any advance warning of the attacks. The German government said it was only given notice on Saturday morning, while France’s junior defence minister said France knew something would happen, but not when.

Macron called on Iran’s leadership to commit to negotiations on its nuclear and ballistic programmes.

“The Iranian people should also be able to build their future freely,” he said. “The massacres perpetrated by the Islamic regime disqualify it, and necessitate that the people be given a voice.”

A UK government spokesperson reiterated Britain’s support for a negotiated solution to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“We do not want to see further escalation into a wider regional conflict,” they said.

Iranian state television reported that Pezeshkian was “safe and sound”, while the Fars news agency said seven “missile impacts” were reported in the Keshvardoost and Pasteur districts of Tehran.

The strikes come weeks after Iranian authorities killed thousands of people in a crackdown on mass protests, according to rights groups. Trump then promised to intervene to support protesters and ordered the buildup of US forces around Iran."

US and Israel launch major attack on Iran as Tehran retaliates across the Middle East – live

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For CNN, a Change in Ownership Means a Suddenly Uncertain Future

​

“Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which includes CNN, has raised concerns within the CNN newsroom about potential compromises to their independence. David Ellison, the chairman of Paramount Skydance, is known for his close relationship with President Trump and his recent revamp of CBS News, leading to worries about potential political influence. While the future of CNN under Ellison’s ownership remains uncertain, there is speculation about potential leadership changes and a possible merger of CBS and CNN’s news operations.

​

Paramount’s apparent victory over Netflix in securing Warner Bros. Discovery has led to concerns within the CNN newsroom.

Feb. 27, 2026, 5:04 a.m. ET

Mark Thompson, CNN’s chief executive, urged staff members not to “jump to conclusions” about Paramount’s offer for the network’s parent, Warner Bros. Discovery.Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Once again, CNN is facing an uncertain fate.

Netflix’s stunning surrender on Thursday in its effort to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery all but assures that the 24-hour news channel will soon be controlled by David Ellison, the chairman of Paramount Skydance and the technology heir best known in the journalism world for his recent revamp of CBS News.

Mr. Ellison’s intentions for the channel remain unclear. But the development has caused some shudders within the CNN newsroom, where the chief executive, Mark Thompson, felt compelled to issue a memo shortly after Netflix’s announcement.

“Despite all the speculation you’ve read during this process, I’d suggest that you don’t jump to conclusions about the future until we know more,” Mr. Thompson wrote. In an email with the subject line “Corporate Update,” he urged his journalists to focus on the “newsy year at home and abroad,” including the upcoming midterm elections “and who knows what else.”

Within CNN, though, reporters and producers have expressed concern that their newsroom’s independence, a point of pride, could be compromised in the event that Paramount absorbs the company.

Mr. Ellison has a friendly relationship with President Trump, who regularly assails CNN as biased. When Mr. Ellison acquired Paramount last year, the Trump administration approved the sale after Paramount paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Mr. Trump against “60 Minutes.” On Tuesday, Mr. Ellison attended Mr. Trump’s State of the Union speech as a guest of Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican.

Upon taking over CBS News, Mr. Ellison appointed Kenneth R. Weinstein, a conservative policy veteran with no experience overseeing news coverage, to serve as the news division’s ombudsman. And he selected Bari Weiss as editor in chief, elevating an opinion journalist with a long history of criticizing old-line media institutions.

Ms. Weiss has asked veteran CBS correspondents why the country thinks they have a liberal bias and drew accusations of political interference when she abruptly postponed a “60 Minutes” segment critical of the Trump administration. She has said that she acts independently, and some conservatives have applauded the changes.

It is unclear if Ms. Weiss would be involved in CNN’s leadership if Mr. Ellison completes the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. One logical outcome, though, might be to combine CBS and CNN’s news gathering operations.

How Mr. Trump might respond to an Ellison-owned CNN is not guaranteed. The president can be a fickle viewer; in October, he pronounced Larry and David Ellison as “friends of mine” who will “do the right thing” at CBS. But weeks later, he condemned “60 Minutes” for treating him “far worse since the so-called ‘takeover,’ than they have ever treated me before.”

In December, when Netflix was poised to win Warner Bros., there was a sigh of relief at CNN. Netflix had chosen to exclude CNN from the Warner assets that it was seeking to purchase, meaning the channel would be unlikely to factor in any efforts to secure the blessings of the Trump administration.

In that situation, Mr. Thompson would continue to oversee the network, and Gunnar Wiedenfels, the Warner Bros. chief financial officer, would run a new spinoff company that included CNN.

But Mr. Ellison has long signaled that he wants CNN to be part of any acquisition.

Anderson Cooper, who had spent nearly 20 years as a “60 Minutes” correspondent while holding down his nightly CNN anchoring gig, surprised Paramount when he announced last week that he would not renew his deal with the CBS Sunday show. It is possible that Mr. Cooper may soon be reporting to Paramount again.

On Thursday evening, Ms. Weiss was attending an event sponsored by The Free Press, the independent site that she co-founded and sold to Mr. Ellison last year. On X, she posted a photograph from the event and added a caption.

“Nowhere I’d rather be,” Ms. Weiss wrote, and then added, puckishly, “Though I hear there’s some news?”

Michael M. Grynbaum writes about the intersection of media, politics and culture. He has been a media correspondent at The Times since 2016.“

 

In Trump’s Case for War, a Series of False or Unproven Claims

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“The Trump administration’s claims justifying military action against Iran are false or unproven. Iran has not restarted its nuclear program, does not have enough enriched uranium to build a bomb quickly, and is not close to developing missiles capable of reaching the United States. Despite the administration’s assertions, intelligence reports and international assessments contradict these claims.

​

Key elements of the Trump administration’s arguments this week for another military campaign against Iran do not hold up.

Feb. 26, 2026

People walked past a missile system and banners of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, in Tehran last year.Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times

As they made their public case this week for another American military campaign against Iran, President Trump and his aides asserted that Iran has restarted its nuclear program, has enough available nuclear material to build a bomb within days, and is developing long-range missiles that will soon be capable of hitting the United States.

All three of these claims are either false or unproven.

American and European government officials, international weapons monitoring groups and reports from American intelligence agencies give a far different picture of the urgency of the Iran threat than the one the White House has presented in recent days.

Iran has taken steps to dig out the nuclear facilities hit during strikes last June by Israel and the United States, and it has resumed work at some sites long known to American spy agencies. But the officials said that there isn’t evidence that Iran has made active efforts to resume enriching uranium or trying to build a mechanism to detonate a bomb.

The stockpiles of uranium that Iran has already enriched remain buried after last year’s strikes, making it nearly impossible for Iran to build a bomb “within days.”

Iran has a large arsenal of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles capable of hitting Israel and American military bases in the Middle East, but American intelligence agencies believe Iran is probably years away from having missiles that can hit the United States. 

The Pentagon for weeks has been moving ships, planes and air defense units to the Middle East as part of the largest American military buildup in the region in more than two decades. This escalation, along with Mr. Trump’s threats, has brought criticism that the White House has made no public case to justify a second American military conflict in Iran in less than a year.

Now, top Trump administration officials have begun to make the case, and key elements of their arguments do not hold up under close scrutiny. They have even contradicted each other in their public statements.

Mr. Trump’s statements about the urgency of the threat posed by Iran’s missile and nuclear capabilities in his State of the Union address this week had echoes of 2003, when President George W. Bush used the State of the Union to build a case for war in Iraq. During that speech, he asserted that Iraq had sought uranium in Africa to fuel a nascent nuclear weapons program. That claim, like so many other Bush administration assertions about Iraq’s weapons programs, was later proved to be false.

“I’m very concerned,” Representative Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on Tuesday after a closed-door meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “Wars in the Middle East don’t go well for presidents, for the country, and we have not heard articulated a single good reason for why now is the moment to launch yet another war in the Middle East.”

Iran is believed to have some 2,000 short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. Experts said that the country appears to have largely replenished this arsenal since firing hundreds of missiles at Israel — and more than a dozen at a U.S. military base in Qatar — last June.

Iran has steadily increased the range of its ballistic missiles, and its most powerful missiles can hit Central and Eastern Europe.

But in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Mr. Trump made a new claim, saying Iran was “working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.”

The following day, Mr. Rubio repeated the president’s assertion about Iran’s work on intercontinental ballistic missiles, although he used different language about how quickly Iran could be capable of hitting the United States. While Mr. Trump said it would be “soon,” Mr. Rubio said it would be “one day.”

“You’ve seen them increasing the range of the missiles they have now, and clearly they are headed in the pathway to one day being able to develop weapons that could reach the continental U.S.,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

Three American officials with access to current intelligence about Iran’s missile programs said that Mr. Trump exaggerated the immediacy of the threat posed to the United States. One official said some intelligence analysts were concerned that top aides have inflated the threats or that intelligence was being selectively presented or distorted as it was sent upward.

A report by the Defense Intelligence Agency last year concluded that Iran did not have ballistic missiles capable of hitting the United States, and that it might take as long as a decade for it to have up to 60 intercontinental ballistic missiles. Even to reach that number of missiles on that timetable, the intelligence agency found, Iran would need to make a determined push to develop that technology.

When asked on Wednesday about the Defense Intelligence Agency report, Mr. Rubio declined to comment.

Concern over Iranian missiles is hardly new for the U.S. government. As far back as 2010, a classified assessment released by WikiLeaks revealed that the U.S. government was secretly monitoring missile technology aid that North Korea was giving to Iran.

The missiles in question were medium-range, able to travel more than 2,000 miles, enough for Iran to hit parts of Europe. Iran obtained 19 of the missiles from North Korea, according to a diplomatic cable dated Feb. 24, 2010. At the time, American officials warned that the advanced propulsion could speed Iran’s development of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

But 16 years later, there is still no evidence that Iran has made its long-range missile program a top priority.

Instead, Iran has put far greater focus on building up its arsenal of short- and medium-range missiles, believing it could be the most effective deterrent against Israeli or American efforts to overthrow the government in Tehran.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has authorized government officials to negotiate with the United States over the country’s nuclear program. The missile program, he insists, is not negotiable.

Steve Witkoff, the White House’s lead negotiator in those discussions with the Iranians, said on Fox News on Saturday that Iran is “probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb making material.”

But American officials and international weapons inspectors said that was not the case, largely because the U.S. and Israeli strikes last June badly damaged Iran’s three main nuclear sites, Natanz, Fordo and Isfahan.

Those attacks made it far more difficult for Iran to access the near-bomb-grade fuel it would need to produce a nuclear weapon quickly. Even if it were to dig it out, experts said, it would take many months — perhaps more than a year — to turn it into a warhead.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, most of the nearly 1,000 pounds of Iran’s 60 percent enriched uranium is buried at Isfahan. There is little evidence that the Iranians are digging out the deep-underground containers in which the uranium is stored.

And without that stockpile, which would have to be further enriched to 90 percent purity before it could be fabricated into a bomb, it is nearly impossible for the Iranian military to produce a weapon.

Even some of Mr. Trump’s allies in Congress have seemed to question Mr. Witkoff’s assertion that Iran could build a bomb so quickly.

“I can’t speak for Steve. I haven’t got those reports, and I’ve been read in on some of those programs,” Senator Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma and a member of the Armed Services Committee, said on CNN this week. “I’m not saying he’s wrong or he’s right, I just haven’t seen those reports.”

Mr. Rubio acknowledged on Wednesday that there was no evidence the Iranians were currently enriching nuclear fuel.

In his State of the Union speech, Mr. Trump reiterated his claim that the strikes last June completely destroyed Iran’s nuclear program — “we wiped it out,” he said — but asserted that Iran had restarted the program.

“They want to start it all over again and are at this moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions,” he said.

American officials who have been briefed on U.S. intelligence assessments said that Iran has not built any new nuclear sites since last June. In recent months, however, Iranian activity has been detected at two still-incomplete nuclear sites that were not struck in last year’s war.

One is near Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment site, which both Israel and the United States struck. Another is near Isfahan, where most of Iran’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium is now buried after the June attack.

Iranian engineers also appear to be exploring how to burrow further underground. U.S. intelligence reports have indicated that Iran could be excavating as a way to build new facilities that would be out of the reach of the most powerful conventional U.S. weapon, the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which the Pentagon used last June against the Fordo nuclear site.

The Fordo facility remains inoperable, according to American officials.

Eric Schmitt, William J. Broad and Helene Cooper contributed reporting.

Mark Mazzetti is an investigative reporter based in Washington, D.C., focusing on national security, intelligence, and foreign affairs. He has written a book about the C.I.A.

Edward Wong reports on global affairs, U.S. foreign policy and the State Department for The Times.

David E. Sanger covers the Trump administration and a range of national security issues. He has been a Times journalist for more than four decades and has written four books on foreign policy and national security challenges.

Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades.“