Iran won't retaliate against U.S. — but will keep enriching uranium, top official says
- - - Iran won't retaliate against U.S. — but will keep enriching uranium, top official says
Richard EngelJuly 3, 2025 at 6:00 PM
TEHRAN — Iran will not retaliate further for the United States' punishing strikes on its nuclear program, a senior government official told NBC News on Thursday, saying his country is open to negotiations with Washington.
But Iran has no plans to stop uranium enrichment, Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said in an interview, reiterating Tehran's long-running position.
"As long as there is no act of aggression being perpetrated by the United States against us, we will not respond again," Takht-Ravanchi said when asked if more was to come.
12 day war
Israel, which has long viewed Iran as an existential threat, targeted the Islamic Republic's nuclear program on June 12, killing dozens of top military officials and nuclear scientists. They also killed nearly 1,000 others, including 38 children, Iran says.
Iran responded with missile strikes on Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities, killing 38 people, according to Israeli officials. A fragile ceasefire has held since last week.
On June 12, President Donald Trump launched a major attack on Iranian nuclear sites — strikes that Takht-Ravanchi said had caused "serious damage" to Iran's nuclear program.
The Iranian facilities included the key Fordo site, which was hit with 14 GBU-57s, 30,000-pound "bunker buster bombs," according to the U.S. military. It was the first time the United States had directly bombed the Islamic Republic.
Two days later, Iran launched a missile attack against an American military base in Qatar. This saw some flights diverted from the busy international hub of Doha, in the United Arab Emirates, but no one was injured and Trump called the attack "very weak."
Destruction from an Iranian missile strike on a residential building in Tel Aviv on June 23. (Amir Levy / Getty Images)
Takht-Ravanchi expressed dismay at the exchange of missiles while Iran was in negotiations with Trump about its nuclear program. Tehran had been curtailing its uranium enrichment as part of a 2015 nuclear deal with the U.S., known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, but that effectively ended in 2018 when Trump withdrew from the deal.
"How can we trust the Americans?" the deputy minister asked. "We want them to explain as to why they misled us, why they took such an egregious action against our people."
Even so, he suggested that his nation would be open to new talks.
"We are for diplomacy" and "we are for dialogue," Takht-Ravanchi said. But the U.S. government needs "to convince us that they are not going to use military force while we are negotiating," he said. "That is an essential element for our leadership to be in a position to decide about the future round of talks."
Iran denies that it wants to build a nuclear bomb, and as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1970, commonly known as the NPT, it is entitled to enrich uranium for nuclear power plants.
The Fordo fuel enrichment site in Iran on June 20 and on June 22 after U.S. airstrikes. (Maxar Technologies)
However the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and other watchdogs became concerned after Iran began enriching uranium to 60% — near to the 90% needed to make a bomb — after the disintegration of the nuclear deal with the U.S.
"Our policy has not changed on enrichment," Takht-Ravanchi said. "Iran has every right to do enrichment within its territory. The only thing that we have to observe is not to go for militarization."
Iran, he said, is "ready to engage with others to talk about the scope, the level, the capacity of our enrichment program."
On suggestions from IAEA chief Rafael Grossi that Iran's 880 pounds of highly enriched uranium may have been moved before the U.S. attacks, Takht-Ravanchi declined to comment.
"I do not know where those materials are, and I will stop at that," he said.
Source: AOL General News
