Former Iranian official Seyed Mousavian says US has not wiped out Iran's nuclear program because of their 'know-how'

Former Iranian ambassador to Germany Seyed Mousavian, who was also part of Iran's nuclear diplomacy team with the UN in the 2000s, says US strikes on major Iranian nuclear sites are only a small victory and Iran's nuclear threat remains real.

Mr Mousavian told 7.30 that while physical Iranian assets could have been destroyed as part of the US's so-called Operation Midnight Hammer, the nuclear "know-how" of Iranian scientists has not been.

That is despite a number of Iranian scientists being killed in initial Israeli strikes.

After the initial Israeli strikes the warring nations exchanged missile attacks before the US president claimed the US attacks caused the destruction of nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

"Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran, as shown by satellite images. Obliteration is an accurate term!" Mr Trump had written on Truth Social.

Mr Mousavian, an academic at Princeton University questioned those claims and offered a warning.

"I don't know the extent of the damages, nobody knows," Mr Mousavian told 7.30.

"There is a dispute in the US ... but even if it is completely destroyed as President Trump has claimed repeatedly,  even if it has been severely damaged, what was the objective? To destroy the facilities, building and utilities?

"But you cannot destroy the know-how. 

"The know-how is there, how you can kill the know-how? Iranians, they have the technology and they can reconstruct anything.

"Whether that will take one month or five months or six months, it doesn't matter.

Enriched uranium a 'bargaining chip'?

At the core of why the US says it executed the strikes on the Iranian facilities is yet to be sighted evidence that Iran was closing in on building its own nuclear weapon.

It was something Mr Mousavian denied and said Iran had only stockpiled 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 per cent as a "bargaining chip".

Weapons-grade uranium is enriched to 90 per cent.

He blamed Mr Trump for "killing" Iran's nuclear deal during his first term in the White House, in 2018.

"Iran was in full compliance for full three years," Mr Mousavian said.

"The US violated when Iran was in full compliance and the US imposed the most comprehensive sanctions ever during the history against Iran.

"[The] sanctions and pressures by the US made Iran increase the level and the capacity of its nuclear programme for a bargaining chip in order to bring the US to the table."

Mr Mousavian claimed — citing knowledge from a source — that the 400 kilograms was central to negotiations right before Israel struck Iran.

"There would be no danger or fear or concern about making 10 nuclear bombs there. The Iranian enrichment would go below 5 per cent, which is civilian enrichment."

7.30 could not verify these claims.

Mr Mousavian said soon after this that Israel launched its first strikes, which have been supported by the US.

Iranian 'threat'

Where that 400 kilograms of uranium is now remains a mystery but Iran remains a signatory — like the US — to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

Asked if Iran might now consider leaving that treaty, Mr Mousavian said that would depend on the actions of the US.

"If the US would respect the rights of Iran like other members of the non-proliferation treaty, Iran would stay," he told 7.30.

"Iran would never go for a nuclear bomb, like before, Iran would cooperate at the highest level of transparency and inspections."

He was then asked if a lack of US respect could mean the Islamic Republic pursues a nuclear weapon.

7.30 host David Speers then suggested that comment sounded like "a threat", which elicited an impassioned response from Mr Mousavian.

"It is American threat. It is Israeli threat," he said.

"Iran has been attacked. Israel attacked Iran, but now you are discussing about Iranian threat."

He then accused Israel of having nuclear weapons of its own, but that is an oft-repeated claim that the Israeli government has never verified.

Asked where the conflict moves to next, he said "everything depends on the US".

And with Mr Trump recently saying neither Israel nor Iran knows "what the f*ck they're doing" that could mean anything.

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