While Israel has justified its latest attacks on Iran by claiming that Tehran is racing toward developing a nuclear bomb, American intelligence believes Iran is years away from acquiring a deliverable weapon — and is not even actively pursuing one at this time.

According to the CNN report, which cites four sources familiar with US assessments, Iran has neither resumed a formal nuclear weapons programme nor made a definitive move toward weaponization.

The strikes, Israel claimed, were meant to prevent an imminent nuclear threat.

However, US officials estimate that even if Iran were to decide to build a bomb today, it would need up to "three years to produce and deliver one to a target of its choosing."

Despite the Israeli assault heavily damaging parts of the Natanz enrichment facility, the report points out that Iran’s more fortified site at Fordow remains intact.

Israel cannot damage Fordow without specific US weapons and aerial support, in particular, US bombs capable of damaging underground facilities and the B-2 bombers that carry them, the report said, quoting defense analysts.

US officials believe that the attacks may have only delayed Iran’s nuclear progress by a "matter of months."

“If you really want to dismantle them [Iran’s nuclear infrastructure], it’s either a US military strike or a deal,” Brett McGurk, former US envoy to the Middle East under the Trump and Biden administrations, told CNN. 

The report highlights that while the US Central Command has conveyed a more urgent tone in internal discussions — considering the possibility of Iran sprinting toward a bomb — the US intelligence community, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, maintains that Iran has not resumed a suspended nuclear weapons programme.

In March, Gabbard testified that “Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized a nuclear weapons program since suspending it in 2003.”

Moreover, the report noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a Fox News interview, doubled down on his claims that Iran was quickly advancing a covert plan to weaponize uranium, insisting that the intelligence shared with the US was “absolutely clear.”

Netanyahu has been making similar claims for over a decade.

In 2012, he famously held up a cartoon bomb diagram at the United Nations General Assembly to warn that Iran was "months away from a nuclear weapon."

More than a decade later, US intelligence has still not found evidence of such an imminent threat.

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Iran has accumulated enough uranium enriched below weapons-grade levels to build several bombs, potentially.

Still, producing a functioning warhead and delivery system remains a longer and more complex process.

CNN also warned that the Israeli offensive could backfire. Some US officials expressed concern that Iran, which had not resumed weaponization, may now consider doing so in response to the attacks.

“Iran is reeling. Not sure they have the capacity or expertise to do that anymore,” one source told the outlet.

That raises a key dilemma for the Trump administration, which is struggling to avoid becoming entangled in a costly, complex war in the Middle East.

“We’re not involved in it. It’s possible we could get involved. But we are not at this moment involved,” Trump told ABC News on Sunday morning.

Trump, speaking from the G7 Summit in Canada on Monday, urged Israel and Iran to begin talks “before it’s too late.”

The US is realigning forces in the region. On Monday, a US official told CNN that the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is moving to the Middle East “without delay.”

Some US naval assets capable of defending against ballistic missiles already in the Middle East are expected to move into the eastern Mediterranean “in the coming days,” the official added.

Two US Navy ships intercepted missiles in defence of Israel at least twice over the weekend, the official said.