Iran could resume producing enriched uranium within months despite significant damage inflicted on its nuclear facilities by recent US and Israeli air strikes, according to Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog.
“The capacities they have are there. 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 News in an interview scheduled to air on June 29.
Grossi, who leads the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), acknowledged that attacks on sites in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan had set back Iran’s capacity to convert and enrich uranium.
However, he cautioned: “Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there.”
“Iran is a very sophisticated country in terms of nuclear technology,” Grossi said. “So you cannot disinvent this. You cannot undo the knowledge that you have or the capacities that you have.”
Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iranian nuclear and military sites on June 13, stating its aim was to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons — an objective Iran denies, insisting its program is solely for peaceful purposes.
The United States later joined the strikes, targeting three key facilities linked to Iran’s atomic program.
US President Donald Trump claimed on June 26 that Iran’s nuclear program had been set back “decades” and said he would consider further strikes if Iran resumed worrying levels of uranium enrichment.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed that the damage to nuclear sites was “serious,” though details remain unclear.
A major unresolved issue is the fate of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, enriched to 60 percent — above levels needed for civilian use but still below weapons grade. Iran is estimated to have had around 400 kilos of this uranium.
“We don’t know where this material could be,” Grossi said. “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.”
In a separate interview with Fox News, Trump indicated that he did not believe Iran had relocated its stockpile.
“It’s a very hard thing to do plus we didn’t give much notice. They didn’t move anything,” he said.
Meanwhile, Iranian lawmakers voted to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, and Tehran denied Grossi’s request to visit the damaged sites, including Fordow, Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility.
“We need to be in a position to ascertain, to confirm what is there, and where is it and what happened,” Grossi said.
