Fordow centrifuges ‘no longer operational’ after Trump strikes, UN nuclear watchdog concludes

Centrifuges at Iran’s notorious underground Fordow uranium enrichment plant are “no longer operational,” the leader of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog declared Thursday — backing the Trump administration’s assessment that last week’s strikes crippled Tehran’s ambitions for an atomic weapon.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi cautioned that language claiming Iran’s facilities at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz were “annihilated” was “too much,” but explained that “we already know that these centrifuges are no longer operational.”

“It has suffered enormous damage,” Grossi told Radio France Internationale when pressed about the impact of the US strikes. “There is very, very, very considerable damage.”

The Argentine refrained from estimating how far Iran’s nuclear program had been set back by Saturday’s strikes, but confirmed that “with these reduced capacities, it will be much more difficult for Iran to continue at the same pace as before.”

A precise measure of the damage to each site will require ground-level assessments with access that the Iranian authorities have been unwilling to give.

However, Grossi explained that centrifuges, which are needed to spin uranium material rapidly in order to enrich it to weapons-grade levels, are very sensitive to vibrations and require precision to work properly.

“There was no escaping significant physical damage,” he told RFI of the effect of America’s bombs. “So we can come to a fairly accurate technical conclusion.”

President Trump has been adamant that Iran’s facilities were “obliterated,” but a leaked “low confidence” preliminary assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) reported by multiple outlets Tuesday suggested the attack only set the program back by several months.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe later claimed that the strikes “severely damaged” Iran’s nuclear programs, citing a “body of credible intelligence.” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard made a similar assertion.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Caine held a press briefing Thursday morning, intended to refute claims that the strikes may not have completely destroyed the nuclear work being done in those facilities.

Trump also hit back at fears that Iran may have transferred its enriched uranium out of Fordow.

“The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out of [the] facility,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday. “Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!”

Iranian propagandists and leadership have tried to project an image of business as usual.

“The US hit nuclear sites but couldn’t achieve much,” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared in a televised speech Thursday. “US President Trump needed to do showmanship.”

Khamenei also claimed victory over Israel and the US despite the clear drubbing Iran weathered and its failure to breach American defenses of the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar during retaliatory strikes carried out Monday.

IAEA inspectors had been monitoring Iran’s nuclear program in keeping with the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty.

However, on Wednesday, Iran’s Parliament moved to end cooperation with the watchdog and boot its inspectors from the country.