Iran’s foreign minister has openly admitted that Tehran is not currently enriching uranium at any site in the country, blaming Israeli and US strikes that smashed its main nuclear facilities during the June war. It’s the clearest confirmation yet from the regime itself that the joint operation crippled Iran’s enrichment infrastructure.
Answering a question from an AP reporter in Tehran, Abbas Araghchi said there is “no enrichment right now because our enrichment facilities have been attacked,” while insisting all declared sites are under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitoring. In the same breath, he vowed Iran will resume enrichment and repeated the regime’s line that its program is “peaceful” and an “inalienable right,” while accusing Washington of seeking “dictated” negotiations rather than “equal and fair” talks.
His admission comes days after the IAEA warned it has not been able to verify the status of Iran’s enriched uranium since the June strikes because Tehran froze full cooperation and has failed to file the “special report” it is legally required to submit after such an attack. The agency’s last snapshot showed roughly 441 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60% – enough for around 10 nuclear bombs if taken to weapons-grade – leaving a dangerous question mark over where that material now sits.
Israeli and American strikes in the war targeted Iran’s core enrichment hubs at Natanz and Fordo, along with missile infrastructure and senior military figures, with Israeli and independent analysts assessing that some of those facilities are damaged beyond realistic repair and that Iran’s air defenses were badly degraded. Iran responded by firing more than 500 ballistic missiles and around 1,100 drones at Israel, killing 32 people and injuring over 3,000 – an onslaught that underscored how far its missile program has already advanced under the cover of its “civilian” nuclear work.
Tehran wrapped Araghchi’s remarks inside a choreographed conference titled “International Law Under Assault: Aggression and Self-Defense,” held in a building named for Qassem Soleimani, where regime-linked academics portrayed Iran’s massive missile salvo as “historic” and “pure” while denouncing Israel for doing the West’s “dirty work.” The hallway was lined with images of children Iran claims were killed by Israel, part of a narrative campaign aimed at foreign journalists flown in for tightly managed access.
For Israel and its allies, the foreign minister’s line that there is “no enrichment right now” is a rare, public acknowledgment that military force can knock a determined nuclear program off the tracks. But with a large cache of near-weapons-grade uranium likely still buried under rubble somewhere in Iran, an IAEA barred from full access, and a regime that openly calls for Israel’s destruction, this looks more like a pause in the nuclear race than a surrender.
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