IAEA Chief Warns Iran May Resume Uranium Enrichment Within Months

The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, warned that Iran may resume high-level uranium enrichment within a few months, despite the damage caused to the country’s nuclear facilities in attacks attributed to Israel and the United States. His remarks were made during an interview with CBS News.

According to a report by the “Defense Post” website, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi admitted that the nuclear facilities were indeed severely damaged but refrained from detailing the extent of the destruction. In contrast, former U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that as a result of the actions, Iran’s nuclear program had been set back by decades.

However, Grossi emphasized in the interview that despite the attacks, the main nuclear sites had not been completely shut down. “The facilities are still standing. They could be brought back online within a few months with a number of centrifuges restored, thereby resuming enriched uranium production,” he said. According to him, one of the critical unresolved issues is whether Iran managed to transfer its stockpile of enriched uranium—408.6 kilograms at a high enrichment level—to a secure location before the attacks.

According to CBS, this quantity may be sufficient to produce more than nine nuclear bombs. Grossi himself noted that it is unclear what became of the nuclear material: “It’s possible that some of it was destroyed, and it’s possible that some was transferred to a secure location. This is a situation that requires clear explanations.”

Meanwhile, the Iranian parliament decided to cease cooperation with the IAEA, and the Iranian leadership rejected Grossi’s request to visit the damaged nuclear sites, particularly the Fordow facility. “We must be in a position where we can know and verify what is happening there—what happened to the material, where it is, and whether there is a real danger,” Grossi concluded.