Iran defies Trump's demands to halt nuclear enrichment as foreign minister claims program is 'so dear to us'

Daily Mail​

4 days ago

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Tehran cannot halt its nuclear enrichment program in a shot at Donald Trump.
Araghchi confirmed Tehran was severely damaged during the recent Israel-Iran war in which W ashington bombed Iran's nuclear facilities.
However, he told Fox News Channel's Special Report on Monday that they are going to rebuild and won't give up enrichment.
'It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up of enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,' the foreign minister said.
'Our enrichment is so dear to us.'
Araghchi confirmed Trump's exclamations that the damage done by the strikes called for by the president was 'serious' but would not get specific.
'Our facilities have been damaged – seriously damaged, the extent of which is now under evaluation by our atomic energy organization but as far as I know, they are seriously damaged.'
For the time being, Iran continues to state that it is not seeking a nuclear weapon and does not have the capabilities to enrich anything but he did confirm that they are still capable of building ballistic missiles.
There was no indication by Araghchi that Iran was any closer to returning to negotiations with Washington over its nuclear program.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House for comment, though President Trump posted to Truth Social about Araghchi's claims that the nuclear program was decimated.
He wrote: 'Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, on the Iran Nuclear Sites: 'Damages are very severe, they are destroyed.' Of course they are, just like I said, and we will do it again, if necessary! As interviewed by Bret Baier. Fake News CNN should immediately fire their phony 'reporter' and apologize to me and the great pilots who 'OBLITERATED' Iran's nuclear sites. CNN is a major ratings loser, as is MSDNC!'
Araghchi did make some news in declaring public support for Houthi rebels, Hamas and Hezbollah and confirming long-held beliefs that they supply weapons for groups he called 'freedom fighters.'
Last month, he was resolute in saying that there would be no talks with Trump and the White House.
'I would like to state clearly that no agreement, arrangement or conversation has been made to start new negotiations,' Araghchi said on state television.
'No plan has been set yet to start negotiations.'
Araghchi's statements came after Ayatollah Khamenei insisted the attacks had done 'nothing significant' to Iran's nuclear sites in an address that also saw him claim the Islamic Republic had 'defeated Israel' and dealt the US a 'slap' with its strikes on an American base in Qatar.
All of the missiles fired at the base were shot down.
The state of Iran's nuclear program, the location of its enriched uranium and the efficacy of the US' strikes on three nuclear facilities are all the topic of intense scrutiny.
American and Iranian officials have offered sharply diverging assessments of the consequences of US involvement in the conflict.
Trump has insisted that bunker-busting bombs and tomahawk missiles 'totally obliterated' Iran 's nuclear facilities and erased the Islamic Republic's chances of building a bomb.
But preliminary intelligence reports found the nuclear program had likely only been set back by a few months, according to several officials who had seen the documents and spoke to CNN and the New York Times.
Their assessment directly contradicted statements by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump's Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went ballistic on reporters at a Pentagon press conference, lashing out at reports that the airstrikes may have been less effective than claimed, declaring that the leakers should be in prison and the reporters fired.
IAEA head Rafael Grossi told French radio RFI that Iran's nuclear facilities must have sustained 'enormous damage' - though he acknowledged that IAEA inspectors had not been able to visit the sites to verify.
'It is true that, with its reduced capacities, it will be much more difficult for Iran to continue the pace it had,' he claimed.
Thousands of centrifuges - the machines used to enrich uranium - were no longer operational, he said, 'given the explosive payload utilized and the extreme vibration-sensitive nature' of the equipment.
In May, the IAEA, reported that Iran had accumulated more than 400 kilograms (900 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60%.
This is already enough to create an atomic weapon like those that laid waste to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Such bombs are too heavy and cumbersome for Iran to deploy effectively. But achieving the 90% enrichment required to produce modern nuclear devices small and light enough to mount to any one of Tehran's vast array of missiles could take mere weeks.
As far as anyone knows, that HEU is still safely squirrelled away, safe from American and Israeli bombs - not to mention ton more uranium enriched to levels below 60%, but still far in advance of the 3-5% required for civilian energy use.
Trump has said he believes the enriched uranium is now buried beneath mounds of rock and rubble.
Asked Wednesday whether he thought the enriched uranium had been smuggled out from the nuclear facilities before US bombs hit, the President said: 'We think we hit them so hard and so fast they didn't get to move.'
But a Khamenei adviser, Ali Shamkhani, has said that the country still had its stockpile.
'Even if nuclear sites are destroyed, game isn't over, enriched materials, indigenous knowledge, political will remain,' he said in a post on X.
Iran's lawmakers last week voted to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, which would be a violation of Iran's responsibilities as part of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
But there are fears Tehran may seek to pull out of the agreement altogether in light of the US and Israeli strikes.
'The Non-Proliferation Treaty allows member states to withdraw (with a three month notice period) 'if it decides that extraordinary events, related to the subject matter of this treaty, have jeopardized the supreme interests of its country',' said Darya Dolzikova, Senior Research Fellow for Proliferation and Nuclear Policy at the RUSI think tank.
'The events of the last week could arguably give Tehran the justification it needs to that end. A withdrawal from the NPT would likely see the international community lose all visibility of the Iranian nuclear program and could - long-term - become a catalyst for broader proliferation in the region.'