On Tuesday the head of Iran’s nuclear energy program vowed that the country will continue its nuclear program uninterrupted, despite the Trump-ordered weekend heavy bombings of three key nuclear and uranium enrichment sites.
AEOI (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran) head Mohammad Eslami said on state television that “plans for restarting [the facilities] have been prepared in advance” and that measures ensuring continued production are in place.
“Despite the evil conspiracies of its enemies,” the AEOI said in the statement, “this organization will not allow the path of development of this national industry to be stopped.”
“This action, contrary to international law, was unfortunately carried out in the shadow of indifference and even with the cooperation of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” the statement read.
This is not surprising, but what is surprising is just how bold and provocative a statement that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov just made. On the question of Iran’s now ‘missing’ (or ‘unknown whereabouts’) enriched uranium stockpiles, he laid out that Iran has every incentive to hide it from IAEA inspectors.
“What guarantees are there that the IAEA will not leak this information to the US or Israel?” he posed in public statements on the American military action against Iran, while emphasizing that arms control will fail due to these American-Israeli surprise attacks which killed negotiations.
Indeed the Iranians too have long feared that international inspectors could be conduits of information on sensitive facilities for Israeli and US intelligence. And now these same facilities are being targeted for destruction.
Lavrov criticized the IAEA Director for demanding to know where Iran's enriched uranium is stored. What guarantees are there that the IAEA will not leak this information to the US or Israel?
— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) June 24, 2025
— Arms control will not be the same after this surprise attack; everyone will lose. pic.twitter.com/wPR3GA2dj7
