Rafael Grossi, the head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, disputed President Donald Trump’s assessment that Iran’s missile sites were “totally obliterated” by U.S. airstrikes earlier this month.
In an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” broadcast on Sunday, Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said intelligence shows that Iran could have “in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that.”
Still, Grossi noted that the U.S. operation targeting three Iranian nuclear sites — Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan — did have an impact, but perhaps not one as decisive as Trump has suggested.
“It is clear that there has been severe damage, but it’s not total damage,” he added. “Iran has the capacities there; industrial and technological capacities. So if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again.”
The White House has so far not addressed Grossi’s comments.
The president told Americans that “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated” by U.S. airstrikes launched on June 21 amid Tehran’s 12-day war with Israel. He has since lashed out at journalists who reported on a preliminary U.S. analysis showing the strikes would merely delay Iran’s nuclear program by months, threatening lawsuits against both CNN and The New York Times for reporting on the Pentagon report.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe has since claimed Iran’s nuclear program was “severely damaged,” citing what he described as a “body of credible intelligence.”
Meanwhile, Grossi said it’s possible that Iran may have moved some of its enriched uranium prior to this month’s U.S. attack, stressing the need for transparency and nuclear inspectors to be allowed to resume their work in the country.
“Some could have been destroyed as part of the attack, but some could have been moved,” Grossi said. “So there has to be, at some point, a clarification. If we don’t get that clarification, this will continue to be hanging, you know, over our heads as a potential problem.”
Last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not directly answer a question on whether the U.S. believed Iran had moved its enriched uranium ahead of the airstrikes.
“We’re looking at all aspects of intelligence and making sure we have a sense of what was where,” he said after lashing out at the Fox News reporter who asked for clarity on the issue.
While Grossi stressed the importance of striking a diplomatic solution on Iran’s nuclear program, Trump said he is not currently talking to the country’s representatives since the June 21 operation in a post on his Truth Social platform early Monday.
