Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has officially signed into law a bill passed by Parliament that obliges the administration to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). According to the presidential office, Pezeshkian enforced the legislation in line with Article 123 of the Constitution, sending the directive to the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI), the Supreme National Security Council, and the Foreign Ministry for implementation.
The bill, Law on obligating the government to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, was passed during Parliament’s open session on 25 June with 221 votes in favour, no votes against, and one abstention out of 223 lawmakers present.
The Constitutional Council, the body tasked with vetting legislation for compatibility with Islamic law and the Constitution, reviewed the bill and raised no objections. The legislation had also gained backing from the Supreme National Security Council, which Pezeshkian leads.
The new law also bars IAEA inspectors from entering Iran and prohibits the installation of surveillance cameras at nuclear facilities. Deputy Speaker Hamid Reza Haji Babaei confirmed the decision in a statement to ISNA, asserting that IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi will no longer be allowed access to Iranian nuclear sites. “We saw information about our facilities in documents received from the Israeli regime,” Haji Babaei said, accusing the IAEA of compromising Iran’s nuclear security.
Ali Mozaffari, deputy head of Iran’s judiciary, accused Grossi of “deceptive acts” according to Iran International, and said the IAEA director could be tried in absentia because “he must be held accountable”.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Sayyed Abbas Araghchi, in an interview with CBS acknowledged that serious damage had been done to Iran’s Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites by the US and Israel military strikes but said Iran’s nuclear programme would continue.
“Nuclear energy has become a science and technology in Iran. It is clear that technology cannot be destroyed by bombs,” he said. “Therefore, if our determination is to resume progress in the nuclear industry – and it is – then this resolve ensures that all the damage can be repaired quickly. This is not because the facilities are untouched, but because the technology remains intact and is embedded in our scientists.”
Asked about reports suggesting the Iranian government is accelerating engineering efforts to regain access to Fordow, Araghchi responded: “No one has exact information about what has happened at Fordow. As far as I know, the damage is very significant and very serious. Still, the Atomic Energy Organisation is evaluating the situation, and the result will be reported to the government.” Responding to a question about whether Iranian inspectors have been able to access Fordow, he said: “This is a matter for the Atomic Energy Organisation to answer. They are currently assessing the situation.”
Asked about repeated US claims that Iran’s nuclear facilities were “obliterated”, Araghchi said: “It appears that the damages are very heavy and serious. Again, I do not have detailed information, but for now, it seems they are unusable until a thorough evaluation is conducted to determine whether they can be restarted and how long that might take – if at all.”
Commenting on IAEA Director General Grossi’s assessment that Iran might resume enrichment within a few months, he said: “His assessment is based on Iran’s technological capabilities in enrichment. From that angle, yes, I think he is right. Our enrichment industry is indigenous and not imported.” He added: “We are assessing the situation following the Israeli and American attacks. Our policies are being drafted. The reality is we have worked very hard for our enrichment programme. Our scientists have worked tirelessly. Our people have endured much.”
He continued: “For over 20 years, we’ve faced severe sanctions over enrichment – we were taken to the UN Security Council, our scientists were assassinated, and our facilities were sabotaged. Yet throughout these years, we have strived to keep our enrichment programme peaceful, and we’ve tried to prove that to the international community…. We even entered into an agreement that was celebrated as a diplomatic achievement by the entire world — but unfortunately, the United States withdrew from it.”
He noted: “We endured all those years. Enrichment has become a matter of national pride and honour for Iranians. Now that we’ve fought a war over it – a war that lasted 12 intense days – it is not something that can simply be set aside. This is a source of national pride. It will certainly be preserved, and we will work hard to defend it.”
He stressed: “Our nuclear programme remains peaceful. We have no intention of moving toward nuclear weapons. These weapons are forbidden based on the fatwa of the Supreme Leader and have no place in our security doctrine. I hope the world – especially the West – understands and accepts this: The Iranian people have the right to benefit from their nuclear rights for peaceful purposes, and they will not back down.”
The extent of the damage inflicted on Iran’s Fordow facility remains a matter of debate, although US claims of total obliteration are losing credibility. The Washington Post, citing four people familiar with classified intelligence circulating within the US government, reported that US intelligence had intercepted private Iranian conversations indicating the airstrikes were “less destructive than expected”.
The US dropped 12 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) weapons onto the ventilation shafts of the facility designed to pierce deep into the mountain before exploding underground, resulting in the holes that can be seen in satellite photos. According to General Dan Caine, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, two bombs were used to blast through concrete covering the ventilation shaft openings, followed by five more bombs at each point.
Caine said the bombs entered the shafts at over 1,100 kmph and detonated deep inside what he called “the mission space.” One pilot reportedly told him the explosion was “the brightest light” he had ever seen, lighting up the night sky like daylight.
However, nuclear weapons specialist Theodore Postol, professor emeritus of science, technology, and national security policy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has explained that most likely the bombs did not reach the “mission space” where enrichment activities took place. He noted that the ventilation shafts almost certainly did not go straight down but were dog-led shaped – down for a certain distance, then vertical for another distance before reaching the vertical shaft that entered the mission space. In this case they would have exploded in the vertical shaft with much of the blast directed back to the surface – hence the bright light.
Recent satellite images from Maxar Technologies show Iran has now built a new access road at Fordow and has moved in construction equipment including a number of vehicles, including what analysts have identified as an excavator and a mobile crane. Maxar analysts, said the imagery indicates “a flurry of activity at the heavily fortified facility built deep inside a mountain”.
Maxar said it “reveals ongoing activity at and near the ventilation shafts and holes caused by last week’s airstrikes on the Fordow fuel enrichment complex”. The pictures show “an excavator and several personnel are positioned immediately next to the northern shaft on the ridge above the underground complex. The crane appears to be operating at the entrance to the shaft/hole.” Several additional vehicles are also seen below the ridge and are parked along the path that was built to access the site.
The images sparked speculation by several key US think tanks. The Washington-based Institute for Science & International Security (ISIS) said the excavator could be preparing a staging area to send cameras or personnel down the holes made by US bombs to inspect the damage done to the underground facility.
ISIS said it observed no visible activity at Fordow’s tunnel entrances, which were filled in. Several of the trucks appear to be dump trucks used to haul away debris. David Albright, a former weapons inspector and head of ISIS said “the Iranians are actively working at the two MOP impact sites penetrating the ventilation shafts” at the plant. Albright assessed that the activity “may include backfilling the craters, as well as conducting engineering damage assessments and likely radiological sampling. The craters above the main shafts remain open.”
“We have observed that the Iranians have also rapidly repaired the bomb cratering damage on the main entrance road from only a few days prior. However, there are yet no indications of any efforts to reopen any of the tunnel entrances,” Albright posted on X.
Joseph Bermudez, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) similarly assessed that the photos suggest a “process of investigating what happened” rather than immediate reconstruction.
