War can’t erase Iran’s nuclear know-how: IAEA Chief

Washington: Military action has badly damaged Iran’s nuclear programme, but it cannot wipe out the knowledge, materials, and industrial capacity that could allow Tehran to rebuild, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi said in an interview on Thursday.​

Grossi said the attacks had rolled back the programme “considerably,” but warned that key problems would remain once the fighting stops.

“One cannot deny that this has really rolled back the program considerably,” he said. But he added that “once the military effort comes to an end, we will still inherit several major issues.”​

Chief among them, he said, is Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 per cent. That level is close to weapons-grade.​

“That is going to still be where it is,” Grossi said, adding that in some cases it could be “under the rubble, and in some cases no rubble.”​

He also said some infrastructure and equipment may have survived the attacks, even if damaged. The full picture, he said, will only be clear when IAEA inspectors return to the sites.​

Grossi drew a sharp line between physical destruction and scientific capability.​

“You can’t unlearn what you’ve learned,” he said, noting that Iran now has “the most sophisticated, fast and efficient machine that exists” and knows how to make it.​

He said the centrifuge programme could be rebuilt because it depends on industrial and metallurgical skills that are hard to erase. “This capability exists,” he said.​

Grossi also cautioned against claims that war alone could end Iran’s nuclear ambitions.​

“I would say any war,” he said, before adding that only a catastrophic nuclear war could destroy such a programme “in an unfathomable way, which we hope, of course, will never be the case.”​

He said Iran’s nuclear file still requires an agreed international framework and renewed inspections. “We still need to find a framework, an agreed framework, that is going to provide us with the necessary visibility and sense of a clear idea of where they are, where they want to go,” he said.​

Grossi said the IAEA had not observed major Iranian efforts to resume enrichment activity during the current military campaign. “We don’t see major activity, which is logical,” he said. But he stressed that the absence of visible activity does not mean the threat is gone.​

“A lot still has survived,” he said. “They have the capabilities, they have the knowledge, they have the industrial ability to do that.”​

He also said recovering or removing enriched material would be highly difficult. The material is stored in cylinders containing uranium hexafluoride gas enriched to 60 per cent.​

“It is very difficult to handle,” he said, calling any such operation “very challenging.”​

Grossi said he has been in contact with officials in Washington and with Iran, and hopes inspectors can return once conditions allow. Iran, he noted, remains bound by treaty obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.​

He said diplomacy remains essential despite the war. “For a durable, long-standing solution, we will have to see each other again around the table,” he said.​

Iran’s nuclear programme has long been at the centre of tensions with the United States, Israel and European powers. ​

The 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, had placed limits on Iran’s enrichment activities, but that framework steadily weakened after the U.S. withdrawal and subsequent escalation between Tehran and the West.​

The IAEA has for years raised concerns over unanswered questions, restricted access and undeclared nuclear material. ​

Grossi has repeatedly argued that inspections, verification and diplomacy remain the only sustainable tools for establishing what Iran has, what it can rebuild and where its programme is headed.

IANS