Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran cannot give up on its nuclear enrichment program despite “serious damage” to its nuclear facilities, during an interview on The Special Report with Bret Baier on Monday.
“Our facilities have been damaged, seriously damaged. The extent of which is now under evaluation by our automechanical organization. But as far as I know, they are seriously damaged,” Araghchi said when asked of the extent of the damage to the nuclear enrichment program after the attacks by Israel and the US.
He further explained that he had no specific information regarding whether any of the already enriched material survived or if it is accessible.
“As I said, our automechanical organization is responsible for that. They are now trying to evaluate what exactly has happened to our nuclear material,” Araghchi said.
He concluded by stating that Tehran cannot give up on its nuclear enrichment program even as it was severely damaged.
"It is stopped because, yes, the damages are serious and severe. But obviously, we cannot give up enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride," Araghchi told Fox News.
US assessment on Iran strikes
Recently, a US assessment found that US strikes in June mostly destroyed one of three targeted Iranian nuclear sites, but the other two were not as badly damaged, NBC News reported.
The report said that US officials believe the attack on Iran's Fordow nuclear facility was successful in setting back enrichment capabilities there by as much as two years, citing two current officials.
In June, US President Donald Trump said ahead of meeting other world leaders at a NATO Summit in The Hague that Iran’s nuclear program had been pushed back decades, The Jerusalem Post previously reported.
“This was a devastating attack,” Trump told reporters.
“Israel is doing a report on it now, I understand, and I was told that they said that it was total obliteration.”
Reuters contributed to this report.