Iran threatens to ramp up enrichment of nuke-grade uranium AGAIN – just 24 days after Trump bombed ‘Mount Doom' facility
It comes after Israel said some of Iran's nuclear fuel
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A satellite view shows an overview of Fordow underground complex after the US bombings on June 21
Credit: Reuters
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This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows a close view of the Isfahan nuclear technology in Iran after US strikes
Credit: AP
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This picture shows a general view of the Isfahan nuclear power plant in 2005
Credit: AFP
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Tehran admitted that
But it said the bombings will not deter the regime from enriching uranium, which they claim is for peaceful civilian use.
The uranium in question is enriched to 60 per cent - way above levels for civilian use but slightly below weapons-grade.
That material, if further refined to 90 per cent, would
Read more on iran
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, a member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission told Mehr
News
Agency: "We will never give up our legitimate right to enrich uranium.
"Enrichment is a sovereign right that we will continue to pursue based on our national needs.
"Bombing cannot erase this knowledge — it will only come back stronger."
It comes as the UK, France and Germany have agreed to restore tough UN sanctions on
Iran
by the end of August if there has been no concrete progress on a nuclear deal.
Most read in The US Sun
Ali Velayati, an adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA: "If the negotiations [with the US] must be conditioned on stopping enrichment, such negotiations will not take place."
Boroujerdi added: "We will in no way succumb to the West's demands for zero enrichment."
The
UN's top nuclear watchdog International Atomic
Energy
Agency (IAEA) warned Iran could
.
Doubts remained whether Iran quietly removed 408.6 kgs of uranium from its most sensitive sites before the US
strikes
- potentially hiding nuclear material elsewhere in the country.
Trump rips critics & insists 'bombs went through like butter' at Iran sites
An Israeli official told
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not express concern about the remaining stockpile and said any attempt to recover it would be detected by the Israeli intelligence.
They also said that
Israel
would have enough time to attack Iran's nuclear facilities again if the regime tries to recover it.
But it was not clear immediately if the strikes - which hit Iran's Fordow nuclear enrichment plant, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities - were able to wipe out the entire stockpile of enriched uranium.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi admitted Iran could still have stockpiles of enriched uranium, saying: "We don't know where this material could be.
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The moment a GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) hit the earth in the test footage
"So some could have been destroyed as part of the attack, but some could have been moved. So there has to be at some point a clarification," he said in an interview with CBS.
"We need to be in a position to ascertain, to confirm what is there, and where it is and what happened," Grossi said.
Satellite imagery showed trucks moving out of Fordow in the days leading up to the attack - leading to speculations that Iran moved some of its underground uranium stockpile.
US and Israel, as well as independent experts, agree that all of Iran's working centrifuges at Natanz and Fordo — some 18,000 - were either destroyed or damaged beyond repair.
DOOM & BOOM
Satellite imagery appeared to show construction work at the Fordow Nuclear Enrichment facility in Qom, near Tehran.
Heavy earthmoving equipment can be seen working near the impact craters caused by US GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs.
Excavators and cranes can also be seen working, while more construction trucks are visible on roads leading to the impact points at the site.
A new access road between the site's northern tunnel entrance and one of the impact craters can be seen after Israel said its air force struck Fordow to "disrupt" access to the site.
David Albright, a US weapons expert,
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Construction activity post-bombing at Fordow as of June 27; annotations by The Sun
Credit: Maxar via Reuters
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A satellite overview shows earthmoving at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Facility on June 27; annotations by The Sun
Credit: Maxar via Reuters
The 12-Day War began on June 13 when Israel launched
The Israelis also brilliantly orchestrated Operation Red Wedding - 30
Iran retaliated by launching daily salvos of ballistic missiles across Israel, but failed to hit any strategic targets.
Less than a fortnight later, Trump
The
US military
's flagship B-2 Spirit stealth bombers dropped more than a dozen
The bunker-buster bombs were used to hit Iran's Fordow Nuclear Enrichment Plant.
Iran, which vowed to hit US military bases across the Middle East, sought its revenge by launching missiles at Al-Udeid Air Base - America's biggest military station in the region.
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President Donald Trump speaks from the East Room of the White House in Washington after the strikes
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President Donald Trump and his national security team meet in the Situation Room during the bombings
Credit: White House
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