June 29 (UPI) -- Iran likely can resume uranium enrichment to make a nuclear bomb in a few months, despite damage to nuclear facilities by United States and Israel airstrikes, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog chief said.
Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said there was a "very serious level of damage" to the nuclear facilities during an interview with CBS News on Saturday.
U.S. President Donald Trump said U.S. airstrikes on June 21 "obliterated" the facilities, including Fordo, which is underground in a mountain. Initial intelligence assessments suggested that the strikes were successful but set back Iran's program by months -- not years.
"It can be, you know, described in different ways, but it's clear that what happened in particular in Fordo, Natanz, Isfahan, where Iran used to have and still has, to some degree, capabilities in terms of treatment, conversion and enrichment of uranium have been destroyed to an important degree," Grossi said. "Some is still standing. So there is, of course, an important setback in terms of those of those capabilities."
He explained what remains.
"The capacities they have are there," Grossi said. "They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that. But as I said, frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there."
He wants International Atomic Energy officials to be able to return sites for an assessment.
"Although our job is not to assess damage, but to re-establish the knowledge of the activities that take place there, and the access to the material, which is very, very important, the material that they will be producing if they continue with this activity," Grissi said. "This is contingent on negotiations, which may or may not restart."
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who said the facilities were "seriously damaged," posted on X on Friday that "Grossi's insistence on visiting the bombed sites under the pretext of safeguards is meaningless and possibly even malign in intent."
Israel was fearful that Iran was nearly ready to have a nuclear bomb within months, and began airstrikes on June 13. Israel relied on American B-2 fighter jets that can send bombs deep into the ground.
Earlier this month, the IAEA said Iran amassed enough 60% enriched uranium to potentially make nine nuclear bombs.
Under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, nuclear deal, which was negotiated by Iran, the United States and the EU, Iran wasn't permitted to enrich uranium above 3.67% purity, which is the level need to fuel commercial nuclear power plants. Iran also was not allowed to carry out any enrichment at the Fordo plant for 15 years.
In 2018, President Donald Trump abandoned the agreement among world powers, and instead reinstated U.S. sanctions in an attempt to stop Iran from moving toward making a bomb. Iran resumed enrichment at Fordo in 2021.
On Friday, the IAEA said radiation levels in the Gulf region remain after the bombings.
Grossi, citing regional data through the 48-nation International Radiation Monitoring System, said the "the worst nuclear safety scenario was thereby avoided."
The main concern IAEA had was for the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and the Tehran Research Reactor because strikes to either facility, including off-site power lines, would have cause some type of radiological accident felt in both Iran and neighboring nations, but "it did not happen," he said.
Grossi noted that the airstrikes would have caused localized radioactive releases inside the impacted facilities and localized toxic effects, based on the roughly 900 pounds of enriched uranium Iran is thought to have had before the attacks.
Trump has said he would "absolutely" consider bombing Iran again if intelligence found that it could enrich uranium to concerning levels.
