Pete Hegseth praises strikes as a "historic achievement" despite Iran claiming no benefits.

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US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has said he was unaware of any intelligence suggesting Iran had moved any of its highly enriched uranium to shield it from US strikes on Iran’s nuclear program last weekend.

US military bombers carried out strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities on Sunday morning using more than a dozen 30,000-pound ‘bunker-buster’ bombs.

The results of the strikes are being closely watched to see how far they may have set back Iran’s nuclear program.

“I’m not aware of any intelligence that I’ve reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be, moved or otherwise,” Hegseth told a news conference overnight.

Hegseth denied the claims at a news briefing where he also accused journalists of downplaying the success of the US strikes, following a leaked preliminary assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency suggesting they may have only set back Iran by months.

He said the assessment was low confidence, and, citing comments from CIA director John Ratcliffe, said it had been overtaken by intelligence showing Iran’s nuclear program was severely damaged and would take years to rebuild.

During the news conference, Hegseth criticised the media, without evidence, for having an anti-Trump bias.

“It’s in your DNA and in your blood to cheer against Trump because you want him not to be successful so bad,” Hegseth said.

“There are so many aspects of what our brave men and women did that … because of the hatred of this press corps, are undermined,” he said.

Nothing taken out of facility, Trump says

US President Donald Trump, who watched the exchange with reporters, echoed his defence secretary, saying it would have taken too long to remove anything.

“The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out of [the] facility,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, without providing evidence.

Several experts have cautioned that Iran likely moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of the deeply buried Fordow site before the strikes, and could be hiding it in locations unknown to Israel, the US and UN nuclear inspectors.

They noted satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showing “unusual activity” at Fordow days before the US strikes, with a long line of vehicles waiting outside an entrance to the facility.

Trump also praised Hegseth’s news conference as: “One of the greatest, most professional, and most ‘confirming’ News Conferences I have ever seen!”

Ratcliffe, Hegseth, secretary of state Marco Rubio and general Dan Caine, the chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held a classified briefing on the strikes on Thursday for all 100 members of the US Senate.

Tulsi Gabbard, who normally would conduct such briefings as director of national intelligence, was not scheduled to participate. Trump said last week that she was wrong in suggesting there was no evidence Iran was building a nuclear weapon.

At the Pentagon news conference, Hegseth described the strikes as “historically successful”.

Iran’s leader says US ‘did not gain anything’ from strikes

On Thursday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that any future aggression against his country would come at a great cost, in his first televised speech since the US targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Addressing the nation, Khamenei framed Iran’s ability to potentially reach major American military bases in the Middle East as a considerable achievement, adding that such actions could be repeated if aggression is renewed.

Khamenei said Iran’s enemies had used its “missiles or nuclear program” as an excuse to wage war, but “are actually looking for our surrender”, before claiming “victory” over “the fake Zionist regime”.

He said the US only entered Israel’s conflict with Iran “because they felt that if they did not, the Zionist regime would be destroyed” and that “the Americans did not gain anything in this war”.

Touching on the state of Iran’s nuclear sites, he added that the targeted US strikes on facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan hadn’t “achieved much”, before praising Iran’s armed forces for managing to “break through” Israel’s defences to “target urban and military areas.”

A man in an Islamic headdress raises his left index finger as he speaks in front of a microphone.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has claimed “victory” over Israel. Source: AAP / EPA

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi denied plans to meet with the US next week, contradicting comments from Trump.

He said Tehran was assessing whether talks with the US were in its interest.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he would continue to work with Trump to “defeat our common enemies, free our hostages, and quickly expand the circle of peace”.

Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire on Tuesday, putting a temporary end to a series of back-and-forth aerial assaults that lasted 12 days.

Israeli strikes on Iran killed at least 627 civilians, according to Tehran’s health ministry, while Iran’s attacks on Israel killed 28 people, AFP news agency reported.