Pete Hegseth’s news conference made one thing clear – but two questions still need answering | World News

Pete Hegseth’s angry news conference, where the US defence secretary roundly abused those media outlets and individuals who didn’t agree with him, certainly told us one thing.

That when reliable information eventually emerges from the battle damage assessment of the US attack on Iran’s Fordow nuclear plant, it won’t be accepted by everyone.

The whole issue has suddenly become politically toxic in Washington DC and will doubtless be fed into the spin dryer of vitriolic commentary and assertion that has been the most stand-out feature of this second Trump administration.

But what we did find out from the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Dan Caine, was that the GBU-57 bunker buster bombs had been designed in some secrecy with exactly this sort of target in mind.

Trump-Iran live: US president reacts to Hegseth news conference

We also learned they all worked as per the test simulations, and that 12 were fired at six separate targets at Fordow and another two at a single target at the Natanz nuclear facility.

But the fierce argument over how to characterise the damage done in these attacks is really just a semantic spat. The two key questions are rather different.

Firstly, will the Iranians decide to give up their quest for a nuclear weapon as a result of this attack, as the Syrians did in 2007 when the Israelis destroyed their Al Kibar nuclear reactor?

Or else will they go hell for leather for a nuclear weapon, as Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein did after the Israelis destroyed his nuclear reactor in 1981?

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And secondly, if the Iranians decide to go again for a nuclear weapon, how long will it be before they are back at the nuclear threshold, where they were less than a month ago?

Will it be within a year? Or five years? Or longer?

When we have an answer to those two questions, then we can put some real perspective on whether the US bombing has really been a success.