Iran has the capacity to start enriching uranium again – for a possible bomb – in “a matter of months”, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog has said.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said US strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites had caused severe but “not total” damage to the enrichment programme.

That contradicts claims by US President Donald Trump that the US bombing had “totally obliterated” the nuclear facilities.

Meanwhile Iran’s deputy foreign minister has told the BBC that the US must rule out any further strikes on Iran if it wants to resume diplomatic talks. Majid Takht-Ravanchi says the Trump administration has told Iran through mediators it wants to return to negotiations, but had “not made their position clear” on the “very important question” of whether they might conduct further attacks while talks are taking place.

Israel attacked nuclear and military sites in Iran on 13 June, claiming Iran was close to building a nuclear weapon.
The US later joined the strikes, dropping bombs on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.
Since then, the true extent of the damage has been unclear.

The IAEA assessment comes after a leaked US intelligence report also concluded that the strikes had probably only set back the programme by months.

Trump retorted furiously to that, declaring that Iran’s nuclear sites were “completely destroyed” and accusing the media of “an attempt to demean one of the most successful military strikes in history”.

Reeta Chakrabarti presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Lyse Doucet in Iran’s capital Tehran.

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