Witkoff: Leaking Intel Assessment Of Iranian Strike “Treasonous,” Leaker “Should Be Held Accountable”
U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff addresses leaked intelligence on Iran’s nuclear capabilities after the strike and what a future nuclear deal would look like on “The Ingraham Angle.”
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Steve, the — this leaked intel assessment, it’s an early look at what was actually accomplished on the ground, and I underline early. But it was leaked. Somebody decided to leak this from the DIA. And it’s being used in the media and it’s all over today that, a-ha, Trump said it was obliterated but it’s not obliterated, it’s set back months but not — it’s not over from Iran’s nuclear program’s perspective. Your reaction to the night — to that and I assume you know what we’re talking about with this leaked intel report? STEVE WITKOFF, ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT & SPECIAL PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY FOR PEACE MISSIONS: Well, it goes without saying that — that leaking that type of information, whatever the information, whatever side it comes out on, is outrageous. It’s — it’s treasonous. So it ought to be investigated and whoever did it, whoever is responsible for it should have been — should be held accountable. It — it could hurt lives in the future. There is — leaking is a completely unacceptable thing. But, let me give you — because I’ve read all the damage assessment reports from not just our government, but from other governments, and I’m not going to get into anything that’s top secret, but let me tell you for sure what happened here. There were three — there are three distinct facilities in Iran that we were concerned with. Isfahan, which is a conversion facility, you cannot weaponize unless you have a — what’s called the conversion process at the beginning of enrichment. And then a conversion process to metallicize the — the material at the end of enrichment. That conversion facility, which as far as we know, is the only facility in Iran that can do this, was completely destroyed at Isfahan. It’s above ground. It was hit with a 30,000-pound bunker buster. And it could not survive that hit. So they have no — they have no conversion opportunity and that means they cannot weaponize even if they’ve enriched to 90 percent. Then there are two other nuclear reactors in Natanz. One above ground and one below ground. The below ground one we know we eviscerated, and above ground one, which had been hit by the Israelis and had been substantially damaged, we put another bomb on top of it just to make sure that it was eviscerated. And we know for a fact it was. Fordow is the last enrichment reactor that was operating there. And we put 12 bunker buster bombs on Fordow. There’s no doubt that it breached the canopy. There’s no doubt that it was well within reach of the depth that these bunker buster bombs go to. And there’s no doubt that it was obliterated. So the reporting out there that — that in some ways suggest that we did not achieve the — achieve the objective is just completely preposterous.
