The United Nations nuclear watchdog said it hasn’t detected any efforts by Iran to rebuild nuclear facilities damaged in US and Israeli strikes over the past two years, even as Tehran continues to block inspectors’ access to most of its atomic sites.
Grossi’s remarks undercut President Donald Trump’s narrative that launching a new war against Iran in late February was necessary to halt its nuclear weapons ambitions. The Trump administration has repeatedly claimed it had destroyed Iran’s nuclear facilities but offered little evidence to back up its claims. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has offered other explanations for the war, including that Washington had to act before Israel struck Iran and sparked retaliation against the US.
Because he said he needed to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon, something that most experts said the Islamic Republic was years away from, trump started the current war against Iran.
The president has repeatedly said he’s weighing renewed strikes on Iran after the US midterm elections. “As of today the IAEA has not been able to verify that there has been no diversion of nuclear material required to be safeguarded,” he said. He’s also said Iran was building up its ballistic missile and drone capability as a conventional “shield” around its nuclear programme
