Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen revealed Tuesday that Israeli operatives had repeatedly operated at Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility in order to better understand the site. “We walked around the Fordow nuclear site many times in order to understand the site,” Cohen said at the Galilee Conference.
Referring to the U.S. strike on Fordow during Operation Rising Lion in June 2025, Cohen added: “The bombing of the site by the Americans was the fulfillment of all my dreams.”
The Fordow nuclear facility after the US strike
(Photo: AFP)
Cohen also addressed Iran’s uranium enrichment program, arguing that “60% enriched uranium is still far from a bomb.”
On June 22, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump announced American strikes on Iran’s three main nuclear facilities, Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. “The U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities of the Iranian regime, Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan,” Trump said at the time.
He said the objective was to destroy Iran’s enrichment capability and eliminate what he described as the nuclear threat posed by “the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror.”
“Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success,” Trump said.
Fox News reported that six bunker-buster bombs were dropped on Fordow, while 30 Tomahawk missiles were fired at the other nuclear facilities.
It was later revealed by ynet that Trump’s declaration was simply inaccurate. The facilities that were targeted had indeed sustained some damage, though at the time it was unclear how extensive it was, but no reasonable intelligence official believed that Iran’s nuclear program had been brought to an end.
Indeed, just two days after Trump’s announcement, The New York Times published an internal Pentagon intelligence assessment that sharply contradicted the president’s account. The report concluded that the damage caused by the strikes on Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan was far from final or complete.
First published: 14:33, 08.11.26