Iran pledges to rebuild damaged nuclear facilities despite pressure and threats.
The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, announced on Wednesday that Iran will rebuild the facilities that were targeted, despite international pressure and Israeli threats of further attacks.
“It is completely normal for facilities to be damaged during any military attack. What matters is that science, knowledge, technology, and industry have deep and long roots in Iran’s history,” Eslami said in press statements. He pointed out that “the enrichment rate, and what is being circulated in public opinion and the media, is being exaggerated by politicians, adventurers, and our enemies. A higher enrichment rate does not necessarily mean it will be used in weapons. Rather, we need higher enrichment for our precision measuring instruments.”
“No one is selling us these materials. We have been under sanctions for years. We need these products for reactor safety systems and for the sensitive processes used in operating reactors. There will be no direct negotiations with the United States,” Eslami continued in an interview with Sky News.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi told The Times that Iran still has the capacity to develop its nuclear program after Israeli and US airstrikes this year.
Grossi stated that “the Iranian government still has the means to manufacture the centrifuges needed to enrich its uranium stockpile.”
“They have the capability. Maybe a number of centrifuges have survived undamaged. They have places where these components are manufactured and where they do all the work. So, if they wanted to, it would only be a matter of time,” he said.
Grossi added that “inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities resumed after Tehran suspended its cooperation with the IAEA following the strikes in June that destroyed several power plants, including the Fordow uranium enrichment plant.”
Grossi said that enriching Iran’s uranium stockpile to 90% purity “will not take long.”
“It’s a matter of weeks, not months or years,” he continued, adding, “This is why Tehran’s nuclear program was subjected to such scrutiny before US strikes.”
Shafaq.com