Iran could be enriching uranium within months, says IAEA chief

Kuwait Times

a day ago

US strikes set up 'cat-and-mouse' hunt for missing uranium
WASHINGTON: Iran could be producing enriched uranium in a few months, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog Rafael Grossi was quoted as saying on Sunday, raising doubts about how effective US strikes to destroy Tehran's nuclear program have been. US officials have stated that their strikes obliterated key nuclear sites in Iran, although US President Donald Trump said on Friday he would consider bombing Iran again if Tehran is enriching uranium to worrisome levels.
'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. 'Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there,' he added, according to the transcript of an interview on 'Face the Nation' with Margaret Brennan due to air on Sunday. Saying it wanted to remove any chance of Tehran developing nuclear weapons, Zionist entity launched attacks on Iran earlier this month, igniting a 12-day air war that the US eventually joined. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Grossi, who heads the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, said the strikes on sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan had significantly set back Iran's ability to convert and enrich uranium. However, Western powers stress that Iran's nuclear advances provide it with an irreversible knowledge gain, suggesting that while losing experts or facilities may slow progress, the advances are permanent.
'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.'
Grossi was also asked about reports of Iran moving its stock of highly enriched uranium in the run-up to the US strikes and said it was not clear where that material was. 'So some could have been destroyed as part of the attack, but some could have been moved,' he said.
The US and Zionist entity bombing of Iranian nuclear sites creates a conundrum for UN inspectors in Iran: how can you tell if enriched uranium stocks, some of them near weapons grade, were buried beneath the rubble or had been secretly hidden away? Following last weekend's attacks on three of Iran's top nuclear sites - at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan - President Donald Trump said the facilities had been 'obliterated' by US munitions, including bunker-busting bombs.
But the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Tehran's nuclear program, has said it's unclear exactly what damage was sustained at Fordow, a plant buried deep inside a mountain that produced the bulk of Iran's most highly enriched uranium.
IAEA chief said it was highly likely the sensitive centrifuges used to enrich uranium inside Fordow were badly damaged. It's far less clear whether Iran's 9 tons of enriched uranium - more than 400 kg of it enriched to close to weapons grade - were destroyed. Western governments are scrambling to determine what's become of it.
Reuters spoke to more than a dozen current and former officials involved in efforts to contain Iran's nuclear program who said the bombing may have provided the perfect cover for Iran to make its uranium stockpiles disappear and any IAEA investigation would likely be lengthy and arduous.
Olli Heinonen, previously the IAEA's top inspector from 2005 to 2010, said the search will probably involve complicated recovery of materials from damaged buildings as well as forensics and environmental sampling, which take a long time. Even a fraction of that left unaccounted for would be a grave concern for Western powers that believe Iran is at least keeping the option of nuclear weapons open. There are indications Iran may have moved some of its enriched uranium before it could be struck.
IAEA chief Grossi said Iran informed him on June 13, the day of Zionist entity's first attacks, that it was taking measures to protect its nuclear equipment and materials. While it did not elaborate, he said that suggests it was moved.
A Western diplomat involved in the dossier, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said most of the enriched uranium at Fordow would appear to have been moved days in advance of the attacks, 'almost as if they knew it was coming'. 'It's very dangerous to do. It is very heavy - very, very heavy. It's a very hard thing to do,' Trump said. 'Plus we didn't give much notice because they didn't know we were coming until just, you know, then.' —Reuters