Iran could rebuild its nuclear sites within months, a former Iranian diplomat has warned.
Seyed Hossein Mousavian, who previously served as a senior member of Iran’s nuclear diplomacy team, said recent US strikes only ‘partly’ destroyed Iran’s nuclear facilities and that the country still retains its nuclear ‘know-how’.
‘There is no doubt… Iranian nuclear facilities have been attacked, have been bombed, have been damaged,’ he told the ABC’s 7.30 program on Thursday.
‘You can imagine buildings, utilities, even perhaps centrifuges have been destroyed, partly, not all.
‘Nevertheless, if the objective of the US-Israeli air strikes aim and objective was to destroy (the) Iranian nuclear program, I’m confident they have failed.
‘Even if they have another attack, even if they have 100 attacks, they will fail because you can not kill technology and know-how, Iranians, they have know-how.’
Mr Mousavian, who claims to no longer be affiliated with the Iranian regime, suggested it might take only months to reconstruct the country’s nuclear facilities.
‘Iranians have the know-how technology and they can reconstruct everything, whether that would take one month or five months or six months, it doesn’t matter.’
Former Iranian diplomat Seyed Hossein Mousavian (pictured) told ABC’s 7.30 on Thursday Iran’s nuclear facilities had only been ‘partly’ damaged by US strikes
David Speers (pictured) clashed with Mr Mousavian accusing him of making a threat when asked about the future of Iran’s nuclear program
Pictured is a satellite image of Iran’s underground nuclear enrichment site at Fordo following US airstrikes which targeted the facility
The US launched an array of strikes on Saturday after Israel and Iran’s long-standing feud developed into a direct conflict earlier this month.
The strikes involved 125 US military aircraft and targeted three nuclear facilities: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.
Mr Mousavian’s comments stand in stark contrast to those of US President Donald Trump who has claimed the bombings devastated the country’s nuclear facilities.
‘Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran, as shown by satellite images,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The former Iranian diplomat is not the first to suggest the damage could have been less extensive than Trump had suggested, including by his own intelligence agencies.
An initial assessment by the US Defense Intelligence Agency also suggested Iran’s path to building a nuclear weapon might have been set back only by months.
Trump shrugged off the findings in an appearance at a NATO summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday, claiming they were ‘inconclusive’.
‘It was very severe. It was obliteration,’ he said.
US President Donald Trump (pictured) described the impact of US strikes as an ‘obliteration’
CIA director John Ratcliffe has since said the strikes had ‘severely damaged’ Iran’s nuclear facilities but stopped short of stating the nuclear program had been wiped out.
Asked by Mr Speers whether he believed Iran would remain in the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Mr Mousavian was non-committal.
‘It depends to the US. If the US would be committed to international rules and regulations,’ he said.
‘If the US would respect Non-Proliferation Treaty, if the US would respect the rights of Iran like other members of Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran would stay.
‘Iran, like before, would never go for nuclear bombs, like before, Iran would cooperate at the highest level of transparency and inspections, to ensure its nuclear program is peaceful.’
Mr Speers then asked whether, in Mr Mousavian’s view, there would be an ‘incentive’ for Iran to speed up its efforts towards building a nuclear weapon.
‘It depends on the US. If the US is going to accelerate hostilities, wars, assassinations, terror, cyberattacks, why they should not?
‘That sounds like a threat.
‘It is (the) American threat. It is (the) Israeli threat. Why you are saying vice-versa?
‘Iran has been attacked. Iran did not attack. Israel attacked Iran. The US attacked Iran. But now we are discussing about Iranian threat?’
