Trump defends US strikes on Iran as intelligence assessment stirs debate

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the officials who disclosed the findings are 'professional stabbers'

President Donald Trump arrives for a media conference at the Nato summit in The Hague, Netherlands (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)

President Donald Trump has insisted that US strikes delivered a crushing blow to Iran’s nuclear programme despite a preliminary American intelligence assessment suggesting that the assault inflicted only a marginal setback.

“This was a devastating attack, and it knocked them for a loop,” Mr Trump said as his administration deployed a phalanx of top officials to defend his claims that Iran’s nuclear programme was “completely and fully obliterated”.