Iran has no plans to abandon its nuclear programme, including uranium enrichment, despite “severe” damage to its facilities after US strikes last month, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Monday.
For now, enrichment “is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe”, Araghchi told Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier”.
“But obviously we cannot give up enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists,” he continued, calling it a source of “national pride”.
He stressed that any future nuclear deal would have to contain the right to enrichment.
When asked whether any enriched uranium had been saved from the strikes, Araghchi said he had “no detailed information”, but that Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation is “trying to evaluate what has exactly happened to our nuclear material, to our enriched material”.
Washington bombed three nuclear facilities in Iran on June 22 to support Israel’s 12-day military offensive, including the Fordow underground uranium enrichment site located south of Tehran.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly called the strikes a success that “completely destroyed” the sites, lashing out at media reports citing intelligence findings of more conservative assessments.
Iran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons and says its programme is for civilian purposes only. A US intelligence assessment found that Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon programme and was “years away from producing one”.
Araghchi, while saying there was no military solution to the dispute over Iran’s programme, told Fox News that “yes, facilities have been destroyed. They are severely destroyed”.
“But the technology is there, our nuclear programme, our enrichment programme, is not something imported from outside that can be destroyed by bombings,” he said.
Trump welcomed Araghchi’s comments in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday.
“Just like I said, and we will do it again, if necessary!” posted the US president.
Araghchi’s remarks come as Tehran is set to hold new talks on its nuclear programme with Germany, France and the United Kingdom on Friday in Istanbul.
Regarding negotiations with the United States to de-escalate regional tension, Araghchi said “we are open to talks” but “not direct for the time being”.
“We are ready to do any confidence-building measure needed to prove that Iran’s nuclear programme is peaceful” in exchange for lifted US sanctions, he added.
The foreign minister also confirmed that Iran would continue to develop and manufacture missiles.
Despite multiple barrages of missiles launched at Israel and waves of Israeli attacks on its bases and launchers, Araghchi said, “We still have a good number of missiles to defend ourselves”.
Baier also asked about the health of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has rarely been seen since the start of Israel’s attack.
“I met him today, he is in a very good shape and in a very good health,” Araghchi said.
