Amid speculations surrounding missing uranium, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir-Saeid Iravani, stated on Sunday that his country’s nuclear enrichment “will never stop”. This is because of the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons that allows it for “peaceful energy” purposes.
The Iranian envoy was speaking to CBS News on its “Face the Nation.” “The enrichment is our right, an inalienable right, and we want to implement this right.” Although he made it clear that “unconditional surrender is not negotiation,” he maintained that Iran was prepared to negotiate a solution. It is dictating the policy toward us.”
Meanwhile, in contrast to US President Donald Trump’s claims that the US set back Iran’s ambitions by decades, the chief of the UN’s nuclear watchdog– International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned that US strikes on Iran did not completely destroy its nuclear program and Tehran could resume enriching uranium “in a matter of months.”
According to an early assessment by the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, which CNN first reported, Rafael Grossi, the director general of IAEA’s remarks seemed to corroborate the idea that the US strikes on important Iranian nuclear sites last week did not destroy the core elements of the country’s nuclear program and most likely only caused it to lag by several months.
Trump has frequently asserted that the US strikes on Iran have “completely and totally obliterated” Tehran’s nuclear program, even though the final military and intelligence assessment is still pending.
Israel launched an unprecedented attack on Iran earlier this month that it claimed was intended to stop Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. It sparked the start of the 12-day Israel and Iran conflict. Iran has maintained that the goal of its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Before a ceasefire agreement was reached, the US hit three major Iranian nuclear sites. Since then, there has been much debate on the degree of the harm caused to Tehran’s nuclear program.
US military officials have revealed some new details regarding the strikes’ planning in recent days, but they haven’t provided any fresh proof that they were successful in stopping Iran’s nuclear development.
Republican lawmakers admitted that the US strikes might not have destroyed all of Iran’s nuclear materials after receiving confidential briefings this week, but they maintained that was never the military’s goal.
Senior Iranian officials discussing the attacks said that they were not as disruptive as they had expected in intercepted messages the US had obtained, The Washington Post reported.
When asked about the various assessments, Grossi said, “This hourglass approach in weapons of mass destruction is not a good idea.
“The capacities they have are there. They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that. But as I said, frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there,” he told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan.
“It is clear that there has been severe damage, but it’s not total damage,” Grossi added. “Iran has the capacities there; industrial and technological capacities. So if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again.”
He further added that the IAEA has resisted pressure to declare whether Iran possesses nuclear weapons or was on the verge of acquiring them prior to the strikes.
“We didn’t see a program that was aiming in that direction (of nuclear weapons), but at the same time, they were not answering very, very important questions that were pending.”
The White House has been contacted by CNN for comments on Grossi’s claims.
When asked about the IAEA chief’s CBS interview, a US official cited remarks the Grossi had made earlier concerning “a very serious level of damage.”
The official stated that Rafael Grossi said in a statement few days ago, there is a ‘night and day’ difference between Iran’s nuclear program before and after Operation Midnight Hammer, and a ‘very serious level of damage’ was done.
“Iran has no air defenses, so the idea that they can just start rebuilding a nuclear weapons program is nonsense. As the President (Donald Trump) has said, Iran will never obtain a nuclear weapon,” the official added.