The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Ratcliffe, informed skeptical members of the United States Congress that American military strikes destroyed Iran's sole metal conversion plant. 

In the process, these strikes handed a huge blow to Tehran's nuclear program, which would take years to overcome, according to a statement made by a United States official on Sunday, as the Associated Press reported.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to share the sensitive intelligence, stated that Ratcliffe explained the significance of the strikes on the metal conversion facility during a secret session that took place last week for lawmakers.

Trump's take

In news that shocked no one, President Donald Trump also pushed back against the assertion that the Iran mission was anything other than an unmitigated success.

President Donald Trump and his administration are denying questions from Democratic lawmakers and others about the impact of the strikes on Iran before the ceasefire with Israel.

“It was obliterating like nobody’s ever seen before,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

”And that meant the end to their nuclear ambitions, at least for a period of time.”

Another insider's opinion

This came just days after Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” where Amos Hochstein, who served as Special Presidential Coordinator for Energy Security during the Biden administration, had a similar take.

Hochstein said during his interview that “as a result of both the Israeli and the American strikes, the nuclear program was set back significantly.

"How much? We don’t really know. Most Israeli military analysts and generals that I’ve spoken to over the last 24, 48 hours think this has gone from a six-months breakout timeframe to two years.”

Hochstein said, “Over the last year, year and a quarter, last April, Iran launched a missile attack against Israel, which was 100 ballistic missiles, accompanied by 200 or so UAVs."

Regional Military History

"The United States military coordinated a response and defeated that attack," Hochstein went on to say, clarifying that it was "really the first time that Iran had used its own territory to attack Israel.

The former Biden administration official went on to say that something similar was seen in October when the United States supported Israel and European countries in their pushback against Iran.

We still need an agreement with Iran, Hochstein said, and they may try to reassemble their program, so inspectors are necessary.