Iran nuclear program 'extremely delayed' — French spy chief – DW – 07/09/2025
Iran's nuclear program was delayed by several months following American and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last month, according to France's intelligence chief.
Speaking to France's LCI broadcaster in his first remarks since the bombing raid, Nicolas Lerner, the head of DGSE intelligence service, said Tuesday that various stages of Iran's nuclear program had been damaged.
"Our assessment today is that each of these stages has been very seriously affected, very seriously damaged," he said. "The nuclear program, as we knew it, has been extremely delayed, probably many months," he added.
Lerner also told the channel that a small part of Iran's highly enriched uranium stockpile had been destroyed but the rest remained in the hands of authorities.
Iran had accumulated a stockpile of highly enriched uranium that, if processed further, could fuel around 10 bombs, according to an assessment by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) earlier this year.
"Today we have indications (on where it is), but we cannot say with certainty as long as the IAEA does not restart its work. It's very important. We won't have the capacity to trace it (the stocks)," Lerner said.
Other intelligence assessments have also suggested that Iran retains a hidden stockpile of enriched uranium and that it could rebuild its nuclear program.
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian last week ordered the country to suspend its cooperation with the IAEA, limiting international inspectors from keeping tabs on the whereabouts of the country's enriched uranium stockpile.
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Rafael Grossi, the director general of IAEA, said last month Iran could begin producing enriched uranium again in a few months.
Grossi said American and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites had caused severe but "not total" damage, contradicting US President Donald Trump's claim that Iran's nuclear facilities had been "totally obliterated."
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