Iran likely to resume enriched uranium production ‘in a matter of months’: IAEA chief

In the wake of recent US attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Iran is likely to resume producing enriched uranium “in a matter of months,” according to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“They can have … in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that,” Rafael Grossi said in an interview released Saturday by the US' CBS News.

Grossi said it is clear that the US attacks left “severe damage, but it's not total damage,” adding that Iran has “the capacities there, industrial and technological capacities. So if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again.”

On June 22, the US dropped six bunker-buster bombs on the Fordo nuclear facility and launched dozens of cruise missile attacks on sites in Natanz and Isfahan as part of its campaign against Iran’s nuclear program.

Following the attacks, the Trump administration has pushed back on reports saying Iran’s nuclear programs was only set back several months rather than being “obliterated,” as the US initially claimed.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, acknowledged that the recent US and Israeli bombings caused “excessive and serious” damage to the country’s nuclear sites.

Grossi added: “Iran had a very vast ambitious program, and part of it may still be there, and if not, there is also the self-evident truth that the knowledge is there. The industrial capacity is there. Iran is a very sophisticated country in terms of nuclear technology, as is obvious. So you cannot disinvent this.”

He said the IAEA found unexplained traces of uranium at undeclared sites in Iran but they had no credible answers about their origin or location.

On whether Iran had relocated its 408.6-kilogram (901-pound) stockpile of uranium enriched to 60%, which could produce over nine nuclear bombs if further refined, the UN watchdog agency head said: “Some could have been destroyed as part of the attack, but some could have been moved. So there has to be at some point a clarification.”

He added that this is why Iran must allow inspectors to resume work as soon as possible.

Araghchi said Saturday that Iran will bar Grossi from entering the country, a move condemned by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

A 12 day conflict between Israel and Iran erupted on June 13 when Israel launched airstrikes on Iranian military, nuclear, and civilian sites, killing at least 606 people and injuring 5,332, according to Iran’s Health Ministry.

Tehran launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes on Israel, killing at least 29 people and wounding more than 3,400, according to figures released by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The conflict came to a halt under a US-sponsored ceasefire that took effect on June 24.