Iran has ruled out additional military strikes against the United States but said it would continue its uranium enrichment activities, according to a senior Iranian diplomat’s statement Thursday.
In an interview with NBC News, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, who serves as deputy foreign minister, explained that Tehran had completed its response to the June US and Israeli attacks on nuclear installations.
“As long as there is no active aggression perpetrated by the United States against us, we’ll not respond again,” he said. Tehran’s retaliation included missile strikes on the US Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, but Qatari defense systems successfully neutralized the incoming projectiles. A ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump ended the active phase of hostilities in late June, though tensions remain high.
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There are conflicting reports about the impact of the US attacks. President Trump has consistently declared that they “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program and set it back by decades. However, a leaked Pentagon Defense Intelligence Agency assessment suggests that Iran was only set back by a few months.
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Rafael Grossi, who leads the International Atomic Energy Agency, supports this view and said in a CBS interview that Iran could restore uranium enrichment “in a matter of months.”
“They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that,” Grossi told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Iran’s enriched uranium reserves have expanded substantially over recent months, totaling more than 408 kilograms of material processed to 60% purity as of May 2025 — a 50% surge since February.
Nuclear experts say this quantity provides sufficient fissile material to produce multiple nuclear weapons if processed further to the 90% weapons-grade threshold. The Institute for Science and International Security calculates that Iran could transform its existing stockpile into enough weapons-grade uranium for nine nuclear devices within a three-week period.
The June military operation targeted Iran’s most critical nuclear infrastructure, including the heavily fortified Fordow enrichment facility buried nearly 300 feet underground, the Natanz fuel enrichment plant, and the Isfahan uranium conversion complex. The Pentagon deployed its most powerful bunker-busting weapons, including 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs, against the hardened Fordow site.
Despite the supposed extensive damage, Takht-Ravanchi insisted Iran would maintain its nuclear development. “Our policy has not changed on enrichment,” he said, arguing that Iran has “every right to do enrichment within its territory” under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
“The only thing that we have to observe is not to go for militarization,” he added. Iranian officials maintain their nuclear program serves only civilian purposes, though the IAEA has repeatedly expressed concern about Iran’s production of near-weapons-grade uranium.
Trump said Thursday he believes Iran wants to avoid further military confrontation: “They don’t want to be blown up. They would rather make a deal, and I think that could happen in the not-too-distant future.” The US and Iran have held high-level meetings since April, though significant disagreements persist over uranium enrichment limits.
However, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has dismissed Trump’s overtures, calling US demands “outrageous nonsense” and reiterating that Israel is a “cancerous tumor” that must be uprooted.
Intelligence assessments suggest Iran may have moved portions of its uranium stockpile to undisclosed locations before the attacks, raising yet more questions about the actual impact on the country’s nuclear capabilities.
Grossi told CBS it was possible Iran relocated enriched uranium canisters to secret sites, though Iranian officials dispute these claims.
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