A day after US President Donald Trump stated that Iran's nuclear program had been "completely and finally destroyed" by American bunker-buster bombs and a barrage of missiles, the program's actual state seemed much vaguer, and senior US officials admitted they were unaware of the fate of Iran's near-bomb-grade uranium stockpile, The New York Times reports, writes UNN.
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"In the coming weeks, we will work to do something with that fuel, and that's one of the topics we're going to talk to the Iranians about," said US Vice President J.D. Vance on ABC's This Week on Sunday, referring to a batch of uranium sufficient to produce nine or ten nuclear warheads. Nevertheless, he argued that the country's potential to convert this fuel into weapons had been significantly limited, as it no longer possessed the equipment to convert this fuel into operational weapons.
The Iranians made it clear that they were not interested in negotiating with the United States, accusing Washington of deceiving Tehran during the last round of talks while planning an airstrike. Moreover, this fuel stockpile is now one of the few negotiable nuclear bargaining chips in Iran's hands, the publication writes.
In a briefing to reporters on Sunday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Cain, avoided Trump's maximalist statements about success, the publication notes. They stated that the initial assessment of battle damage to all three facilities hit by B-2 Air Force bombers and Tomahawk Navy missiles showed "severe damage and destruction."
Satellite photographs of the main target, the Fordo uranium enrichment plant, which Iran built underground, showed several holes where a dozen 30,000-pound (13.6-ton) Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs — one of the largest conventional bombs in the US arsenal — punched deep holes. Initial analysis by the Israeli military concluded that the facility, which had been a target for US and Israeli military planners for over 26 years, sustained heavy damage from the strike but was not completely destroyed.
But there was also evidence, according to two Israeli officials familiar with the intelligence, that Iran had moved equipment and uranium out of the facility in recent days. And, the publication writes, there was increasing evidence that the Iranians, heeding Trump's repeated threats of military action, had moved 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity. This is just below the 90 percent typically used in nuclear weapons.
The 60-percent enriched fuel was stored deep inside another nuclear complex, near the ancient city of Isfahan. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, stated in a text message that his teams of United Nations inspectors last saw the fuel about a week before Israel launched its attacks on Iran. In an interview with CNN on Sunday, he added that "Iran made no secret that they had protected this material."
Later that day, when asked if he meant that the fuel stockpile, stored in special containers small enough to fit in the trunks of about 10 cars, had been moved, he replied: "Yes." It seems this is exactly what Vance was discussing regarding the fate of the fuel, the publication notes.
If so, Isfahan was not the only location where the custodians of Iran's nuclear program – a source of nationalistic pride and a symbol of Iran's ability to defend itself – tried to move equipment and materials out of sight and reinforce the Fordo plant to protect what was to remain in place, the publication writes.
Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies of tunnels leading to the Fordo mountain, taken just days before the American strike, show 16 trucks parked near the entrance. The Open Source Centre in London analyzed that Iran might have been preparing the site for an attack.
It is unclear what exactly, if anything, was removed from the facility.
One American official said it would have been impossible to fully evacuate equipment from Fordo after the conflict with Israel began.
The official added that historical documents about the nuclear program were buried deep within the facility, which would likely complicate any efforts to restore it. In the coming days, Iranians and intelligence agencies expect to learn more about the enrichment facility in Natanz, which is older, larger, and less protected than Fordo. The Israelis have launched repeated strikes, destroying the above-ground enrichment center and disabling the electrical system. Grossi later said that he believed the power interruption might have caused the centrifuges to spin out of control, likely destroying all of them.
How long it will take the Iranians to repair and replace this equipment is unknown; it will probably stretch into years, the publication notes. But Iran is also building a new deep underground replacement for Natanz in the southern part of the city. Officials in Tehran told the IAEA that they had not yet opened the plant, so there was nothing to see there.
It is now unclear whether the Iranian government will allow the IAEA inspection team, who were in the country when the conflict with Israel began, to resume their inspections, which would include verifying the location and safety of this near-bomb-grade uranium, the publication notes.
All international inspections were halted during the war, Iranian officials stated. And even if they resumed, it would be unclear whether inspectors could physically access the bombed underground Fordo facility or the wreckage of the larger enrichment plant in Natanz, the publication writes.
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