Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei confirmed Wednesday the country’s nuclear facilities had been “badly damaged” in American strikes over the weekend. Speaking to International Media, Baghaei refused to go into detail but conceded the Sunday strikes by American B-2 bombers using bunker buster bombs had been significant.
“Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure,” he said. Meanwhile, the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran appeared to be holding on Wednesday after a rocky start, giving rise to cautious hope that it could lead to a long-term peace agreement even as Tehran insists it will not give up its nuclear program. The ceasefire took hold on Tuesday, the 12th day of the war between Israel and Iran, with each side initially accusing the other of violating it until the missiles, drones and bombs finally stopped.
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump, who helped negotiate the ceasefire, told reporters at a NATO summit in the Netherlands that it was going “very well.” “They’re not going to have a bomb and they’re not going to enrich,” Trump said about Iran.
Iran has insisted, however, that it will not give up its nuclear program and in a vote underscoring the tough path ahead, Iranian parliament agreed to fast-track a proposal that would effectively stop the country’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based UN watchdog that has been monitoring the Iranian nuclear program for years.
Ahead of the vote, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf criticised the IAEA for having “refused to even pretend to condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities” that were carried out by the United States on Sunday. In Vienna, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said he had already written to Iran to discuss resuming inspections of their nuclear facilities.
Among other things, Iran claims to have moved its highly enriched uranium ahead of the American strikes, and Grossi said his inspectors needed to reassess the country’s stockpiles. The American strikes hit three Iranian nuclear sites, which Trump said had “completely and fully obliterated” the country’s nuclear program. At the NATO summit, when asked about a US intelligence report that found Iran’s nuclear program has been set back only a few months, Trump scoffed and said it would at least take “years” to rebuild.
