IAEA chief suggests Iran could rebuild nuclear infrastructure

The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency suggested on Wednesday that Iran could rebuild its nuclear infrastructure after it suffered extensive damage.

"The reconstruction of the infrastructure is not impossible", said Rafael Grossi during a press conference in Vienna. "This is work that Iran knows how to do. It would take some time."

Grossi said his inspectors needed to return to Iran to re-assess the country's nuclear capabilities following US strikes on three major sites.

IAEA inspectors last verified Iranian nuclear material a few days before the Israeli strikes began on 13 June.

"I had received a letter from the Iranian foreign minister saying that they had taken protective measures already. They did not get into details into what that meant, but clearly that was the implicit meaning of that. So, we can imagine that this [nuclear] material is there", Grossi said.

The chief of the UN nuclear agency declined to assess a US intelligence report that American and Israeli strikes only set back Iran’s atomic programme a few months.

Asked about the possibility of Iran opting out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Grossi said that would be “very regrettable."

Grossi has repeatedly called for a diplomatic solution to the Israel-Iran war. On Tuesday, he said he had written to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to propose a meeting. 

Iran's parliament approved a bill on Wednesday to suspend cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog. The country has long accused the IAEA of Western bias.

Ahead of the vote, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf criticised the IAEA for having “refused to even pretend to condemn the attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities” that were carried out by the United States on Sunday.

Rafael Grossi has stated several times that "nuclear facilities should never be attacked."

He didn’t address Iran's criticism of the IAEA during his news conference.