IAEA chief says Iran nuclear impasse can't be solved militarily
"Iran had a very vast, ambitious program, and part of it may still be there. And if not, there is also the self-evident truth that the knowledge is there," International Atomic Energy Agency chief Raphael Grossi told CBS in an interview.
"The industrial capacity is there. Iran is a very sophisticated country in terms of nuclear technology, as is obvious. So you cannot disinvent this, military operations or not. You are not going to solve this in a definitive way militarily."
Grossi said Iran had not yet asked IAEA inspectors to leave the country, in what he called a positive sign.
"The work will have to continue. Otherwise, nobody will have an idea of what is happening in Iran."
"Who in the Fake News Media is the SleazeBag saying that “President Trump wants to give Iran $30 Billion to build non-military Nuclear facilities,'" Trump said in a Truth social post in reference to a CNN report.
"Never heard of this ridiculous idea. It’s just another HOAX put out by the Fake News in order to demean. These people are SICK!!!"
CNN had cited four sources familiar with the matter that the Trump administration discussed possibly helping Iran access up to $30 billion to build nuclear energy sites.
Iranian state media have released the first photos of the coffins of senior military commanders and officials killed in Israeli airstrikes, just two hours ahead of their mass funeral in downtown Tehran.
The images purportedly show the bodies of Iran’s top general Mohammad Bagheri; IRGC chief commander Hossein Salami; Aerospace Force commander Amir-Ali Hajizadeh; Khatam al-Anbiya commander Gholam-Ali Rashid and his successor Ali Shadmani; IRGC Quds Force Palestine Corps chief Saeed Izadi; and Saeed Borji, who was known as the figure behind Iran’s nuclear detonation technology.
Iran is transferring parts of its military industry, including ballistic missile and drone production, to Houthi-controlled areas in Saada, Hajjah, and the outskirts of Sanaa, the group's rivals in Yemeni government said in a statement on Friday.
Moammar al-Eryani, information minister of Yemen's internationally-recognized government urged the world to treat the threat seriously.
Eryani warned Iran’s activities could transform Yemen into a launchpad for banned weapons programs, endangering regional stability and blocking chances of a political solution in the war-torn country.
“International complacency in the face of these measures will cost the region and the world dearly, and give Iran the opportunity to consolidate a dangerous reality by turning Yemen into a workshop for developing its prohibited programs, an advanced missile base for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and a platform for launching threats against regional security,” the minister wrote on X.
“This escalating threat does not only affect neighboring countries but also poses a direct danger to the global economy, supply chains, and energy prices.”
"The US and the Zionist regime of Israel have openly threatened to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader," the Iranian mission to the United Nations wrote on X, appending a formal complaint to the global body.
"This criminal act constitutes a manifest instance of State terrorism; and the very gravity of such a threat must not be permitted to be diminished or normalized in any manner whatsoever."
Tehran would be open to a nuclear deal in which it transfers its stockpile of highly enriched uranium abroad, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations said in an interview with Al-Monitor.
The dovish comments were the most expansive official expression of Iran's nuclear stance since the end of a twelve-day war which saw the Islamic Republic's nuclear sites attacked by Israel and the United States.
However, the whereabouts of Iran's near-bomb-grade uranium stockpiles remains unknown.
"We would be prepared to transfer our stockpiles of 60% and 20% enriched uranium to another country and have them transferred out of Iranian territory in return for receiving yellowcake," Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani told Al-Monitor in a written interview.
Before the conflict, Iranian officials had loudly rejected the idea of such a transfer.
Around 400 kilograms—more than 900 pounds—of uranium enriched to 60% purity is unaccounted for. A former top UN nuclear official told Iran International that the risk of Iran's acquisition of a nuclear weapon remains until the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirms its location.
“One should not relax because this material as such is enough for 10 nuclear weapons if it is enriched further to 90%,” former Deputy Director General of the IAEA Olli Heinonen told Eye for Iran.
Regional consortium
In his interview with Al-Monitor, Iravani added Tehran is open to a regional nuclear consortium broached in US-Iran talks but does not see the plan as a substitute for a domestic nuclear program.
Iran, the envoy said, is willing to “collaborate with all countries in our region that operate nuclear reactors — whether on issues of reactor safety or the supply of reactor fuel,” if such a move is a “complementary initiative” and not a substitute for Iran’s domestic nuclear program.
The United States, according to domestic media reports, proposed to Iran in talks preceding the war the creation of a nuclear consortium potentially including Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and the United States.
The arrangement would aim to supply Iran with enriched uranium for civilian use in exchange for partial sanctions relief on Iran’s oil exports, central bank, and the shipping sector.
Axios and The New York Times reported earlier this week that US negotiator Steve Witkoff has proposed creating a regional consortium to break the deadlock in stalled nuclear talks.
Iran's foreign ministry early this month rejected giving up domestic enrichment, but Iravani appeared to give the consortium idea its biggest official endorsement yet.
“A consortium could very well be one of the forms such cooperation might take,” Al-Monitor quoted Iravani as saying.
Asked if Iran would limit enrichment to the auspices of the consortium operating within Iran, Iravani told the outlet: “In principle, we have no objection to that; however, we should consider it based on the details of any potential proposals we receive.”
Iravani told the outlet that the Iranian parliament's recent move to bar cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency "does not signify Iran’s withdrawal from the NPT," or non-proliferation treaty.
A nuclear deal with the United States, Iravani added, must respect “Iran’s rights as a responsible (NPT) member”.
