Even as Iran has claimed that the US‑Israeli offensive struck the Natanz nuclear facility, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi has said there is no indication so far that any nuclear facility in Iran has been damaged or hit in the ongoing war.
Even as Iran has claimed that the US‑Israeli offensive struck the Natanz nuclear facility, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi on Monday said there is no indication so far that any nuclear facility in Iran has been damaged or hit in the ongoing war.
In his introductory statement to the Special Session of the IAEA’s Board of Governors, Grossi said that the organisation’s regional safety monitoring network has been put on alert and is liaising with the leadership continuously.
“Regarding the status of the nuclear installations in Iran, up to now, we have no indication that any of the nuclear installations, including the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, the Tehran Research Reactor, or other nuclear fuel‑cycle facilities, have been damaged or hit,” said Grossi, the Director General of the IAEA, the United Nations’ (UN) watchdog for nuclear energy.
The United States and Israel launched an offensive against Iran on Saturday, striking political and military leaders along with military facilities across the country. Iran on Sunday
announced that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei had been killed in US‑Israeli strikes. He was among dozens of top leaders —such as Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) chief Mohammad Pakpour and Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh— who have been killed in the offensive.
As with the US‑Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities last year, there have been concerns about the potential spillover of nuclear material from these strikes.
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Grossi said that no elevation of radiation levels above the usual background levels had been detected in countries bordering Iran.
Grossi, however, noted that efforts to contact the Iranian nuclear regulatory authorities through the IAEA’s Incident and Emergency Centre (IEC) continue, but there has not been any response from the Iranian side so far.
Iran claims attack on Natanz nuclear site
When asked which nuclear facility he was referring to, Najafi said it was the facility at Natanz.
Iran enriches most of its uranium at the nuclear facility in Natanz, which is located around 220 kilometres south of the capital, Tehran. Large parts of the facility are built deep underground and are understood to be beyond the reach of munitions used by Israel. Last year,
the United States attacked the site with specialised bunker‑buster bombs, and any strike in the current war would have used similar ordnance.
Before the war,
Grossi had said that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium was mostly unharmed by Israeli and US strikes in June and remains in Iran’s possession. The IAEA had assessed that Iran had enriched uranium up to 60 per cent — just short of the 90 per cent weapons‑grade level.
At the time of the American strikes, Trump had said that Natanz and two other sites hit at Isfahan and Fordow were “obliterated”, but satellite imagery and independent analyses —as reported by Firstpost’s Madhur Sharma— have disputed the claim.
Before the war, the IAEA said Iran used advanced centrifuges there to enrich uranium up to 60 per cent — a short, technical step from weapons‑grade levels of 90 per cent. Some of the material is presumed to have been onsite when the entire complex was attacked last June.
Grossi had said that most of Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile remained at Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz, and had not been moved. At the time of the strikes in June, the IAEA believed Iran had around 440 kilograms of 60 per cent enriched uranium.
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