'Can't undo knowledge, capacity': IAEA chief claims Iran could restart uranium enrichment 'in months'; says it didn't have nuclear weapons
Rafael Grossi (left), and excavators at tunnel entrances at the Fordo facility in Iran on Friday, June 27, 2025 (right)
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, has said Iran may be able to resume producing enriched uranium within months, despite recent airstrikes by the US and Israel on its nuclear sites.
"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, the director general of the IAEA said Friday, according to a transcript of his interview released Saturday by CBS News
Grossi said Iran's capabilities and expertise in nuclear technology remain intact despite damage to several facilities. "Iran had a very vast ambitious program, and part of it may still be there, and if not, there is also the self-evident truth that the knowledge is there.
The industrial capacity is there. Iran is a very sophisticated country in terms of nuclear technology, as is obvious," he said.
"So you cannot disinvent this. You cannot undo the knowledge that you have, or the capacities that you have. It's a huge country, isn't it? So I think this should be the incentive that we all must have to understand that military operations or not, you are not going to solve this in a definitive way militarily.
You are going to have an agreement. You are going to have an inspection system that will give everybody… the assurances that we can definitely turn the page," he added.
While Iran's nuclear capabilities remain a concern for several countries, Grossi made clear that Iran does not possess nuclear weapons. "Let me be clear here… they have all these capabilities, but for the agency, first of all, they didn't have nuclear weapons.
Okay? This needs to be said," he said.
He added that the IAEA had found unexplained traces of uranium at undeclared sites in Iran. "We had found traces of uranium in some places in Iran, which were not the normal declared facilities. And we were asking for years, why did we find these traces of enriched uranium in place x, y or z? And we were simply not getting credible answers. If there was material, where is this material? So there could be even more.
We don't know,' he said.
'This is why… I think we need to go back.'
He also said that the IAEA does not know the current location of Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
"We don't know where this material could be," Grossi told CBS News. "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."
Grossi added, "We need to be in a position to ascertain, to confirm what is there, and where is it and what happened."
Iran has rejected Grossi's request to visit the damaged sites, including the Fordoo facility, and its lawmakers have voted to suspend cooperation with the IAEA.
Israel carried out a bombing campaign on June 13 targeting Iranian nuclear and military facilities, saying the strikes were to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, a claim Iran denies.
The United States later struck three major sites linked to Iran's atomic program.
US President Donald Trump said the attacks had set back Iran's nuclear capabilities "decades."
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi acknowledged the damage was "serious," though full details are still unknown.
A major concern is whether Iran managed to move its stockpile of enriched uranium before the attacks. The country is estimated to have had about 408.6 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent. This is higher than levels used for civilian purposes but below weapons-grade. If further enriched, this amount could be used to produce over nine nuclear weapons.
In an interview with Fox News, Trump said he did not believe the uranium stockpile had been moved. "It's a very hard thing to do plus we didn't give much notice," he said. "They didn't move anything."
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First Post
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Initially, intelligence officials told CNN on Wednesday that the nuclear programme was set back by two years. However, one Israeli source told ABC News that the outcome at Fordow was 'really not good'. Another source said, 'Anyone who says it was a failure is pushing in the wrong direction. Anyone who says it was 100% obliterated is also pushing in the wrong direction.' In what was music to Trump's ears, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Baghaei told Al Jazeera on June 25, 'The nuclear installations have been badly damaged—that's for sure'. However, there's a huge difference between damage and destruction. N-enrichment, missing stockpile & resumption Iran's nuclear enrichment is the core of the problem, triggering Western alarm all these years and resulting in the Israeli and US attacks. Natural uranium has two isotopes: U-238 (99.3 per cent) and U-235 (around 0.7 per cent). Only U-235 is useful for powering nuclear reactors or making nukes. To remove U-238 and increase the concentration of U-235, natural uranium is converted into uranium hexafluoride gas and fed into centrifuges. These machines spin at a high speed and separate U-235, which is extracted in highly concentrated form. The process is called nuclear enrichment. Enriched uranium can be used both as fuel for power plants and for making nuclear bombs. Only 3.67 per cent enriched uranium is needed for nuclear power plants. However, Iran, which has always said that its N-programme is only meant for civilian use, has been enriching uranium for years to 60 per cent. If enriched to 93 per cent, uranium can be used to make nukes. The US, Israel and European powers fear that Iran can enrich uranium to that level and make nuclear bombs. In the early 2000s, the IAEA found traces of highly enriched uranium at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility, the main enrichment site. Though Iran halted enrichment, it resumed in 2006, triggering years of international sanctions. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) capped enrichment at 3.67 per cent and asked Tehran to drastically reduce its uranium stockpile and phase out the centrifuges. In 2018, Trump withdrew from the JCPOA and called for a new deal. Subsequently, Iran stopped complying with the JCPOA, removed IAEA surveillance and monitoring equipment and started enriching 149 kg of uranium up to 3.67 per cent using advanced centrifuges like the IR-6 and IR-9. According to the IAEA, the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control's Iran Watch and the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), in 2019, Iran breached the stockpile limit and had 213 kg of 3.67 per cent enriched uranium and 160 kg of 4.5 per cent. In 2020, the stockpile of 3.67 per cent enriched uranium was 215 kg and 2,228 kg of 4.5 per cent. By 2021, Iran's stockpile of 2 per cent enriched uranium was 560 kg, 5 per cent 1,622 kg, 20 per cent 114 kg and 60 per cent 18 kg. In 2022, Iran ramped up enrichment with more centrifuges. Two per cent enriched uranium was 1,845 kg, 5 per cent was 1,030 kg, 20 per cent was 386 kg and 60 per cent was 62 kg. In 2023, the IAEA found traces of 83.7 per cent enriched uranium at a nuclear facility. Two per cent enriched uranium was 1,217 kg, 5 per cent was 2,218 kg, 20 per cent was 567 kg and 60 per cent was 128 kg. By 2024, the stockpile of 60 per cent enriched uranium neared 180 kg, with the US saying that Iran could produce a nuke in one or two weeks. Two per cent enriched uranium was 2,191 kg, 5 per cent was 2,595 kg, 20 per cent was 839 kg and 60 per cent was 182 kg. Till May this year, Iran had 2,221 kg of 2 per cent enriched uranium, 5,509 kg of 5 per cent, 275 kg of 20 per cent and 408.6 kg of 60 per cent. In 2022, Iran removed the IAEA's surveillance and monitoring equipment. One year later, the West was alarmed when the IAEA found 83.7 per cent enriched uranium particles in samples taken at Fordo in January 2023. Whether Iran intends to produce one nuke or several is dependent on the stock of 60 per cent enriched uranium. The biggest concern is the untraceable 408.6 kg stockpile of 60 per cent enriched uranium. Iran has around 20 nuclear facilities. There's a high possibility that the enriched stockpile was already dispersed before the strikes. Grossi confirmed it saying that the stockpile at Isfahan was last seen by the IAEA a week before the Israeli attacks. Before the US bombing, a Pentagon intelligence assessment speculated that Iran may have removed the stockpile from Fordow. Even the DIA report indicates the same. Two Israeli officials told NYT that intelligence suggested Iran had moved equipment and a part of the stockpile from Fordow. The US is still in denial mode about Iran moving the stockpile. At the press briefing with Caine, Hegseth said, 'I'm not aware of any intelligence that I've reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be, moved or otherwise.' For Iran, enrichment is non-negotiable. At The Hague summit, Trump said that he would bomb Iran again if it restarted enrichment. However, Iran's deputy foreign minister for political affairs Majid Takht Ravanchi told Germany's national television Das Erste that Iran will continue enrichment under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). 'No one can tell us what we should or should not do…' A close aide of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told AFP that the 'game is not over'. The rubble blocking the entrances to the tunnels to the underground chambers can always be cleared, damaged nuclear facilities repaired and centrifuges replaced to resume enrichment. June 24 satellite imagery shows Iran has already started repairing the Natanz plant. The two craters are covered with dirt, many roads above the complex have been cleared by heavy machinery, and a few temporary structures have been erected at one of the impact sites. New satellite imagery from June 24 of the Natanz Nuclear Site in Central Iran appears to show efforts underway to potentially repair the facility, with two holes seen on June 22 after the strikes by the U.S. Air Force, believed to have been created by GBU-57A/B MOP (Massive… — OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 25, 2025 Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, earlier said, 'Plans for restarting (the facilities) have been prepared in advance, and our strategy is to ensure that production and services are not disrupted.' Iran proved over the years that it could rebuild its nuclear facilities despite damage. For example, the 2009 US-Israel Stuxnet cyber attack on Natanz disabled one-fifth of the centrifuges. Iran installed more advanced centrifuges, with 19,000 in operation before the Israeli strikes. Iran's deepest N-underground facility intact The most concerning development in the Iranian N programme is the ongoing construction of a new centrifuge assembly facility 150 metres deep near Natanz. The IAEA was supposed to inspect the site on the first day of the Israeli strikes, but it was cancelled. Satellite imagery taken between October 25, 2022, and January 15, 2024, showed construction and excavation at the tunnel complex under Mt. Kolang Gaz La, south of the Natanz plant. According to a March 25, 2024, , Iran has constructed tunnels and is working on underground rooms that could contain enrichment halls. In our latest story, I break down some of the recent construction at the Natanz nuclear facility, #Iran. Using satellite images, we identify likely new tunnel entrances for an apparent new underground facility. — Christoph Koettl (@ckoettl) December 9, 2020 ISIS concluded that four tunnel entrances were largely complete as of October 2022 while the main western tunnel entrance continued to be strengthened and reinforced. According to ISIS, the site is 'slated to hold a new, large, advanced centrifuge assembly facility that replaces the Iranian Centrifuge Assembly Centre destroyed in an attack in July 2020'. 'In fact, the tunnel complex is more deeply buried than the Fordow underground enrichment plant with more entrances and no apparent ventilation shaft, making it harder to destroy than Fordow and certainly harder than a surface facility.' Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Washington-based Foundation for Defence of Democracies (FDD), a nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy, said, 'The time is quickly running out as Iran moves into a zone of nuclear immunity to deny the regime permanent use of this deadly site.' FDD senior adviser Richard Goldberg said, 'If Tehran is allowed to complete this facility and move its enrichment infrastructure inside, we will enter a new and potentially irreversible era of the Iranian nuclear threat.' A wounded Iran and a nuclear bomb The Israeli and the US strikes have shattered Iran's image of a West Asian power and invincibility. Iran is reduced to issuing only threats and fake victory claims against Israel and the US. Iran's weak response to the US bombing and its amenability to the ceasefire exposed the reality of its threats. Almost all of the 14 missiles Iran fired at Qatar's US-run Al-Udeid Air Base—evacuated days earlier—after giving hours of warning was a face-saving exercise. Iran responded in a similar fashion to the US assassination of IRGC's Quds Force commander Major General Qasem Soleimani in January 2020 and the Israeli elimination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in July 2024. However, the dangerous events in West Asia in the last several days wouldn't have unfolded if Iran had nuclear bomb(s). The attacks jolted Iran. It wasn't developing a nuke. It's still an NPT member. It cooperated with the IAEA to a large extent despite Trump exiting JCPOA. Yet, it was attacked. After the humiliation, Iran might clandestinely develop a nuclear bomb to negotiate from a position of strength and prevent such massive military strikes. Nuclear weapons are the highest form of deterrence. Some hard-line voices inside Iran have been calling for manufacturing a nuke to deter Israel and the US. Foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told Qatar's Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, 'I think that our view on our nuclear programme and the non-proliferation regime will witness changes, but it is not possible to say in what direction.' In March, when Trump threatened to bomb Iran, Khamenei's adviser and former Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said, 'If at some point you (the US) move towards bombing by yourself or through Israel, you will force Iran to make a different decision.' Iran has also hinted at quitting the NPT. During the Israeli strikes, Baghaei told reporters that 'such a proposal [Bill] is just being prepared'. On June 22, Araghchi told reporters in Istanbul that the 'NPT is not able to protect' Iran. 'So, why a country like Iran or other countries interested to have a peaceful nuclear energy should rely on NPT?' In the latest sign of Iran's changing stance and defiance, Parliament has approved a bill to suspend cooperation with the IAEA. Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf slammed the IAEA for putting Iran's 'international credibility up for sale' and added that Iran will 'move at a faster pace with the country's peaceful nuclear programme'. The big question is how much time Iran needs to produce a nuke. According to the IAEA, Iran has enough material to produce at least 10 nuclear bombs if it enriches its 60 per cent stockpile to 93 per cent. Iran can produce one nuke in 2.5 days, 5 in 11 days, 9 in 21 days, 11 in 30 days, 15 in 2 months, 19 in 3 months, 21 in 4 months and 22 in 5 months. However, producing weapons-grade uranium (WGU) is one thing, and building a deliverable nuke is another. According to nuclear experts, Iran would take months or a year to build a deliverable nuke. Only advanced metallurgy and engineering can machine WGU into the core of an atom bomb. The IAEA reports only mention the increase in 60 per cent enriched uranium and the number of centrifuges, not atomic purification, engineering, manufacturing and testing. Besides, Iran would need to test the complete warhead rigorously and explode the bomb underground. A March 2024 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report states that Iran 'has not mastered all of the necessary technologies for building such weapons'. The CRS mentioned former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley's March 2023 testimony in which he said that Iran would need 'several months to produce an actual nuclear weapon'. Even the IAEA reports 'suggest that Iran does not yet have a viable nuclear weapon design or a suitable explosive detonation system'. Echoing the assertion of nuclear experts, CRS said that Iran 'may also need additional experience in producing weapons-grade HEU metal for use in a nuclear weapon, which is first cast and machined into suitable components for a nuclear core'. If Iran has a secret and advanced nuclear programme and wants to manufacture a nuke, it wouldn't have hidden the components at Fordow, Natanz or Isfahan. Only 20 kg of 93 per cent enriched uranium is enough for making one nuke. The 408.6 kg of untraceable enriched uranium could have been transported in a minitruck to any unknown place. Does Iran have the elements needed for a bomb, and will it assemble one after the humiliation? The answer is buried deeper than Iran's under-construction deepest nuclear facility near Natanz. The writer is a freelance journalist with more than two decades of experience and comments primarily on foreign affairs. He tweets as @FightTheBigots. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer. They do not reflect Firstpost's views.
Time of India
an hour ago
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Iran confirms 71 killed in Israeli strike on Evin prison; top prosecutor among the dead
Iran's judiciary has confirmed that at least 71 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Tehran's Evin prison last week, a notorious facility long criticised for its treatment of political prisoners and foreign detainees. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The death toll was revealed seven days after the June 23 attack, amid growing scrutiny over Israel's bombing campaign during the 12-day war with Iran. The judiciary spokesperson, Asghar Jahangir, said the victims included prison guards, staff, inmates, visiting family members and civilians living near the site. The strike reportedly destroyed several sections of the prison complex, including the administrative wing, the medical centre and visitor areas. Images released by the judiciary showed collapsed ceilings, shattered walls and debris-strewn halls inside the facility. While Israel has not directly acknowledged responsibility for the Evin prison attack, it had confirmed conducting multiple airstrikes on military targets in Tehran. The strike triggered international alarm, with human rights groups and families of prisoners expressing fears for the safety of those inside. Noemie Kohler, the sister of French detainee Cecile Kohler held in Evin, called the attack 'completely irresponsible,' adding, 'We don't know if they are still alive — we're panicking. ' Evin, located in northern Tehran, is operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and houses many political dissidents and dual nationals. Among its detainees are French citizens Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, held since 2022 on espionage charges their families deny. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Iranian authorities have since transferred an unspecified number of inmates from the facility. The judiciary also confirmed the death of top prosecutor Ali Ghanaatkar, known for his role in jailing dissidents including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi. He is set to be buried at a shrine in Qom. The prison strike came as part of Israel's broader campaign aimed at crippling Iran's military and nuclear infrastructure, launched on June 13. Over the 12-day conflict, more than 1,000 people were killed in Iran, including at least 417 civilians. Iran responded by firing hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israeli cities, intensifying fears of regional escalation before a ceasefire was reached on Tuesday.
