U.N. watchdog warns Iran could restart uranium enrichment within months
Iran could likely resume uranium enrichment for a nuclear weapon within a few months despite U.S. and Israeli airstrikes damaging its facilities, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said, News.Az informs via UPI.
Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said there was a "very serious level of damage" to the nuclear facilities during an interview with CBS News on Saturday.
U.S. President Donald Trump said U.S. airstrikes on June 21 "obliterated" the facilities, including Fordo, which is underground in a mountain. Initial intelligence assessments suggested that the strikes were successful but set back Iran's program by months -- not years.
"It can be, you know, described in different ways, but it's clear that what happened in particular in Fordo, Natanz, Isfahan, where Iran used to have and still has, to some degree, capabilities in terms of treatment, conversion and enrichment of uranium have been destroyed to an important degree," Grossi said. "Some is still standing. So there is, of course, an important setback in terms of those of those capabilities."
He explained what remains.
"The capacities they have are there," Grossi said. "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 wants International Atomic Energy officials to be able to return sites for an assessment.
"Although our job is not to assess damage, but to re-establish the knowledge of the activities that take place there, and the access to the material, which is very, very important, the material that they will be producing if they continue with this activity," Grissi said. "This is contingent on negotiations, which may or may not restart."
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who said the facilities were "seriously damaged," posted on X on Friday that "Grossi's insistence on visiting the bombed sites under the pretext of safeguards is meaningless and possibly even malign in intent."
Israel was fearful that Iran was nearly ready to have a nuclear bomb within months, and began airstrikes on June 13. Israel relied on American B-2 fighter jets that can send bombs deep into the ground.
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