The United States’ airstrikes on nuclear facilities in Iran did not destroy its nuclear programme and only set it back by a few months, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing a preliminary intelligence assessment from Washington.

This came hours after Tel Aviv and Tehran on Tuesday agreed to a ceasefire after 12 days of hostilities that saw Israel attack Iran and face Iranian retaliation. However, both countries have since accused each other of violating the ceasefire.

Washington had joined Israel’s war against Iran in the early hours of Sunday. US President Donald Trump had said that the country carried out a “very successful attack” on Iranian nuclear sites in Fordo, Natanz and Esfahan.

He claimed that Iran’s nuclear facilities had been “completely obliterated” in the attacks.

Washington is an ally of Israel and acts as a guarantor of the country’s security.

However, an assessment conducted by the Pentagon’s intelligence arm Defence Intelligence Agency claimed that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed in the US attack, unidentified officials told CNN.

The Pentagon serves as the headquarters of the US Department of Defence.

Tehran’s centrifuges were largely “intact”, the officials said, adding that the enriched uranium was moved out of the sites prior to the US strikes. “So the [Defence Intelligence Agency] assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops,” CNN quoted the officials as saying.

The White House rejected the assessment and called it “flat out wrong,” CNN reported.

“This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN.

She claimed that the “leaking of this alleged assessment” was a clear attempt to demean Trump and discredit “the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to” obliterate Iran’s nuclear programme.

“Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration,” CNN quoted Leavitt as having said.

On June 13, the Israeli military struck what it claimed were nuclear targets, and also other sites, in Iran with the aim of stalling Tehran’s nuclear programme. Iran retaliated with missile attacks on Israel.

While Israel has claimed that Iran was “closer than ever” to obtaining a nuclear weapon, Iran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.

After 12 days of hostilities, Israel and Iran on Tuesday agreed to a proposal by the United States for a ceasefire. US President Donald Trump made the initial announcement about the truce hours after Iran struck the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which houses US troops. Trump said no Americans or Qataris were killed or wounded in the attack.

Iran willing to return to talks with US

Iran on Tuesday said that it was ready to return to negotiations with the US as the ceasefire in its hostilities with Israel took hold, AFP reported.

However, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also said his country would continue to “assert its legitimate rights” to the peaceful use of atomic power.

In a phone call on Tuesday, Pezeshkian told Qatar “to explain to them, in your dealings with the US, that the Islamic Republic of Iran is only seeking to assert its legitimate rights”.

Tehran has never sought to acquire nuclear weapons and does not seek them, Pezeshkian said. He added that Iran was “ready to resolve the issues... at the negotiating table”, AFP reported.

Claims of victory

Both Israel and Iran claimed victory on Tuesday after the announcement of the US-brokered ceasefire to end the 12-day conflict, AFP reported.

In a video statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Israel had “achieved a historic victory” that would “abide for generations”, The Times of Israel reported.

Israel had removed “two existential threats – the threat of destruction via nuclear weapons and the threat of destruction via 20,000 ballistic missiles” that Iran was moving to build, he claimed, adding that his country would have faced destruction in the future if it had not acted now.

Netanyahu also thanked Trump for “his part in defending Israel, and removing the Iranian nuclear threat” and added that the US president acted “in an unprecedented fashion”.

Iran, on the other hand, said Tehran had “compelled” Israel to “unilaterally” stand down, AFP reported.

Earlier in the day, Trump had condemned the countries for violating the terms of the ceasefire that had come into force only hours before. Iran and Israel “have been fighting so long and so hard that they do not know what the f**k they are doing”, he said.