The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has said that recent US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites did not cause total damage to Tehran’s nuclear program and that Iran could resume uranium enrichment “in a matter of months,” contradicting President Donald Trump’s claim that the strikes had set Iran’s nuclear ambitions back by decades.
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), offered his assessment during an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” According to a transcript released ahead of the broadcast, Grossi stated, “This hourglass approach in weapons of mass destruction is not a good idea.”
“The capacities they have are there,” Grossi added. “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. But as I said, frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there.”
Grossi’s remarks align with an early assessment by the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, first reported by CNN, which suggested that the US strikes on three key Iranian nuclear sites last week did not destroy the core components of Iran’s nuclear program and likely set it back only by a few months.
“It is clear that there has been severe damage, but it’s not total damage,” Grossi further explained. “Iran has the capacities there; industrial and technological capacities. So if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again.”
The conflict, which lasted 12 days, began earlier this month when Israel launched an unprecedented attack targeting Iranian nuclear and military facilities. Israel said the aim was to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, though Tehran insists its nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes.
In response, the US carried out strikes on Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan—three critical sites in Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. However, the full extent of the damage remains under debate.
Trump has repeatedly claimed the US had “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program. But following classified briefings this week, even Republican lawmakers acknowledged that the strikes may not have eliminated all of Iran’s nuclear materials—though they argued that complete elimination was never the military’s primary mission.
Grossi also told CBS News that the IAEA has resisted pressure to confirm whether Iran had nuclear weapons or was close to having them before the strikes.
