Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said during a recent interview that the U.S.’s strikes last month “destroyed” Tehran’s nuclear facilities and that the country will not refrain from continuing to enrich uranium.
“It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up [on] enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” Araghchi told Fox News’s Bret Baier.
Araghchi later added that the “facilities have been destroyed.”
Iran’s foreign minister, in an interview on “Special Report with Bret Baier,” said Iran will be able to rebuild the facilities, insisting that Tehran would not pause enriching uranium.
“If the goal is to make sure that Iran will never have nuclear weapons, that is achievable,” Araghchi said.
President Trump and other administration officials have claimed that U.S. military strikes on June 21 “completely destroyed” Iran’s three nuclear sites — at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
A recent intelligence assessment, which was reported by multiple news outlets last week, said that the nuclear facility in Fordow was mostly destroyed, but the ones in Natanz and Isfahan were not and could potentially resume uranium enrichment.
Apart from the White House, the Defense Department (DOD) has also pushed back against the intelligence report, saying that the June attacks, carried out by B-2 bombers and Tomahawk cruise missiles, obliterated all three sites.
DOD’s chief spokesman Sean Parnell said to reporters earlier in July that the Pentagon’s assessments indicated that Iran’s nuclear program was set back by “one to two years.”
Israel initially attacked Iran on June 13, which led to a 12-day war between the two countries. A ceasefire was reached on June 24.
Prior to the conflict, the U.S. and Iran completed five rounds of nuclear talks, although the two countries did not reach a deal. Trump pulled out of a former President Obama-negotiated deal in 2018.
“It is developed by ourselves. It is an achievement by ourselves. The technology is there. The scientists are there, the people who have run these facilities are there. Buildings can be rebuilt. Facilities can be rebuilt. Machines can be replaced,” Araghchi said.
“I think the recent attack proved that there is no military option for our nuclear program,” the foreign minister added.