Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei confirmed on Wednesday that the country’s nuclear facilities were seriously damaged during a U.S. strike over the weekend.
While on Al Jazeera, Bahá’i declined to give a detailed introduction, but the U.S. B-2 bomber using the Bunker-Buster bomb on Sunday admitted that the strike was very important.
“We have severely damaged our nuclear facilities, that’s for sure,” he said.
Israeli military spokesman Brig. General Effie Defrin said on Wednesday that his country’s assessment was also “serious damage” to Iran’s nuclear facilities, and its nuclear program “restored it for years.”
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at a NATO summit in the Netherlands that the situation was “going smoothly.”
“They don’t have bombs, they won’t be fulfilled,” Trump said of Iran.
The president also said to the report that appeared on Tuesday, which suggests a report released by the U.S. defense intelligence agency suggests that Iran’s nuclear program may have been restored to its original state in just a few months.
Tehran’s anger at UN nuclear agency
Meanwhile, the Iranian parliament approved a bill to suspend cooperation with the UN nuclear monitoring body.
Nurus said the move requires final approval from Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf was quoted by state media and said Iran would accelerate its civilian nuclear program.
Tehran denied seeking nuclear weapons and said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution to declare Iran breach of its non-proliferation obligation paved the way for Israeli and U.S. attacks.
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The IAEA refused to even condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facility, citing a spokesperson, “has sold its international credibility.”
“So, Iran’s IAEA will terminate its cooperation with the agency until the security of nuclear facilities is ensured and the country’s peaceful nuclear program will be faster,” he said.
In Vienna, IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said he had written to Iran to discuss the recovery inspection of its facilities.
Among other things, Iran claims to transfer its highly enriched uranium to the U.S. before the U.S. strike, and Grossi said his inspectors need to reassess the country’s stock.
“We need to go back,” he said. “We need to be involved.”
Grossi said he could not speculate on how severe the damage was, but Iran’s nuclear capabilities were well known.
“The technical knowledge is there, the industrial capacity is there,” he said. “That no one can deny it, so we need to work with them.”
Earlier this week, the National Security Council of Iran’s parliament approved a general overview of the bill, which Ebrahim Rezaei, a spokesman for the committee, said the bill would suspend installation of surveillance cameras, inspections and installations of reports to the IAEA.
The Iranian government also faces a call for a restriction on the country’s commitment to a nuclear non-proliferation regime following Israel’s attack on its nuclear site and the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend.
“I think our views on nuclear programs and non-proliferation regimes will witness change, but it is impossible to say in any direction,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with Al-Araby al-Jade on Tuesday.
