The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog says U.S. strikes on Iran did not destroy its nuclear program, directly contradicting President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that Tehran’s capabilities were wiped out.
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told CBS’s Face the Nation that Iran still has the tools and knowledge to resume enriching uranium—and could do so soon.
“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,” Grossi said, according to a transcript released ahead of the broadcast. “Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there.”
Trump had claimed that U.S. strikes earlier this month “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but Grossi says that’s not true.
“It is clear that there has been severe damage, but it’s not total damage,” he said. “Iran has the capacities there—industrial and technological capacities. So if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again.”
Grossi’s warning aligns with early assessments from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, first reported by CNN, which suggest the strikes only delayed Iran’s program by months—not years or decades, as Trump suggested.
The 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran erupted after Israel launched strikes it said were meant to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The U.S. followed with its own strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites before a ceasefire began. Since then, the true impact of those strikes has been under debate.
While U.S. officials have shared details about the planning of the attacks, they’ve offered little evidence that the strikes significantly degraded Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Republican lawmakers briefed on the matter admitted the attacks may not have taken out all of Iran’s nuclear material—but insisted that wasn’t the main goal.
Grossi also highlighted the importance of full access for inspectors and pointed out Iran had not been fully transparent, even before the strikes.
“In this sensitive area of the number of centrifuges and the amount of material, we had perfect view,” he said. “What I was concerned about is that there were other things that were not clear. For example, we had found traces of uranium in some places in Iran, which were not the normal declared facilities. And we were simply not getting credible answers.”
He confirmed that Iran had been disclosing some information up until the strikes—but key questions had gone unanswered.
Grossi said it was possible Iran moved some enriched uranium out of the targeted sites before the U.S. attacks. “It’s logical to presume that when they announce that they are going to be taking protective measures, this could be part of it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Iran is moving further away from international oversight. Its parliament has passed a bill halting cooperation with the UN nuclear agency, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has suggested Iran may reconsider its membership in the Non-Proliferation Treaty—the global agreement meant to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
Grossi stressed that the IAEA has not seen evidence that Iran currently has nuclear weapons—but said Iran has still not answered key questions about its activities.
“We didn’t see a program that was aiming in that direction,” he said. “But at the same time, they were not answering very, very important questions that were pending.”
The White House has not commented on Grossi’s remarks. But his statements leave little doubt: Iran’s nuclear program is still alive—and Trump’s claims of total destruction don’t hold up.
