Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Reported Damaged by US Strikes

The UN nuclear watchdog stated on Thursday that Iran’s nuclear facilities were “resultedly damaged” following US airstrikes on Saturday, though a more comprehensive evaluation is needed.

Rafael Grossi, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), remarked, “I think ‘all-outs’ are too many, but it was heavily damaged.” He shared this information with French broadcaster RFI, noting ongoing debates about the extent of the destruction. “Obviously you have to go to the site, but that’s not easy; there are shards, and it’s no longer an operating facility,” he added.

President Trump claimed this week that three targeted sites have been “completely and completely wiped out.” However, he later expressed uncertainty about the damage based on the initial intelligence reports. He suggested that the airstrikes have pushed Iran’s nuclear capabilities back by decades. In contrast, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dismissed the severity of the damage during his first public comments post-bombing, stating, “They failed to achieve anything important.”

Grossi declined to speculate on how the US attacks on enrichment sites in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan would impact Iran’s overall nuclear program. “If that capacity is declining, it will be much more difficult for Iran to continue at the same pace as before,” he acknowledged. Yet, he pointed out that Trump’s remarks imply a military objective, which he described as subjective in terms of intent. “We don’t judge intentions; we analyze and evaluate what we see on the ground,” he concluded.

Grossi had reached out to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragut to discuss the possibility of resuming oversight evaluations that had been limited prior to Israel’s unexpected strikes on Tehran’s nuclear and military facilities on June 12th. “Obviously there is some tension at this point,” Grossi noted, adding that Iran has a political perspective that claims the agency has not been fair.