TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's victory speech on Tuesday was an opportunity he had awaited for decades.

“In the 12 days of Operation Rising Lion, we achieved a historic victory, which will stand for generations,” he said following the ceasefire that went into effect earlier in the day. “We rose up and stood like lions, and our roar shook Tehran and echoed around the world. … We sent Iran's nuclear project to oblivion.”

But an initial US intelligence assessment questioned the effect of Israel’s aerial campaign against Iran’s nuclear sites and the US bombing of the country’s three main nuclear facilities. As reported by CNN and the New York Times, the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency's preliminary assessment concluded that the combined Israeli and American efforts had set back Iran’s program by months at best. The bunker-busting bombs President Donald Trump ordered dropped on Fordow damaged Iran’s major underground uranium enrichment site, but did not destroy it. 

The sources cited in these reports said that Iran has the capacity to rebuild the facilities within weeks or months. Israeli and Western intelligence agencies have still not located all of Iran’s stockpiles of near-weapons-grade uranium, which would be sufficient to produce some 10 bombs.