Iran says war with Israel caused ‘serious’ damage to nuclear sites
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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that damage to Iran’s nuclear sites from the 12-day war with Israel was “serious,” as the country begins assessing the conflict’s impact.
“A detailed assessment of the damage is being carried out by experts from the Atomic Energy Organization (of Iran),” he told state television.
“Now, the discussion of demanding damages and the necessity of providing them has been placed as one of the important issues on the country’s diplomatic agenda,” he added.
“These damages are serious, and expert studies and political decision-making are underway at the same time.”
President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that airstrikes that the United States launched against Iran’s nuclear sites in support of ally Israel “obliterated” the facilities.
That assessment painted a much grimmer picture than that laid out earlier on Thursday by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in his first public statement since the U.S. attack.
In a prerecorded video, Khamenei said that the attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities “were unable to do anything important,” adding that President Trump’s claims that the strikes “obliterated” the nuclear sites were “exaggerated.”
Araghchi also suggested Iran might stop cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, and threw into question whether inspectors from the agency would be allowed to access the country’s nuclear sites. He said Iran would not welcome a visit by the agency’s director, Rafael Grossi, at this time.
On Thursday, Iran’s Guardian Council, which has veto power over legislation in the country, approved a bill passed by hard-liners in Parliament that would effectively ban all cooperation with the I.A.E.A. in retaliation for the bombing by the United States of the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities over the weekend.
While President Masoud Pezeshkian, a moderate, must still decide whether to enact the law, Araghchi, his foreign minister, said the government would fully cooperate with the law. “Without a doubt, we are obliged to enforce this law,” Araghchi said in the hourlong televised interview. From now on, he added, Iran’s “relationship with the agency will take a different shape.”
Days after the strikes, several key questions about Iran’s nuclear program remain: What happened to the country’s 400 kilograms, or about 880 pounds, of enriched uranium, which would provide enough nuclear fuel for 10 bombs should Iran decide to weaponize it? Also unanswered: Whether any of Iran’s advanced centrifuges survived the strikes.
These are questions that U.N. inspectors could more definitively answer if they were allowed into the sites. They would also be able to confirm whether Iran was repairing its facilities and reviving its nuclear program, as its officials have said they intend to do.
