WASHINGTON, June 29. /TASS/. Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi believes that Iran has managed to preserve certain components of its nuclear program and may resume uranium enrichment within a few months.
"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," Grossi told CBS in an interview. "But as I said, frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there."
"It is clear that there has been severe damage, but it's not total damage, first of all. And secondly, Iran has the capacities there; industrial and technological capacities. So if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again," Grossi said, referring to uranium enrichment and the development of the Iranian nuclear program.
According to the IAEA director-general, Iran "used to have and still has, to some degree, capabilities in terms of treatment, conversion and enrichment of uranium" in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. Grossi added that these capacities "have been destroyed to an important degree," but "some is still standing."
In his words, IAEA experts need to continue their work in Iran to receive more information about ongoing activities.
Earlier, CNN reported, citing sources, that the US intelligence community believes that American strikes on Iran did not destroy the main components of the country's nuclear program. Preliminary assessments indicate that the US attack only postponed Tehran’s acquisition of a nuclear bomb by several months. The stockpiles of enriched uranium were not destroyed, and the centrifuges are not damaged, the source noted. In turn, Rubio told Politico that these media reports were "false" and "did not accurately reflect what’s happening."
US President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on June 25 that US strikes definitely took away Iran’s ability to build nuclear weapons.They said Iran’s nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan were de-facto obliterated. Besides, the White House assured that Iran failed to evacuate fissure materials from these sites in time.