Senior Iranian officials have warned that Tehran is prepared for a new military confrontation with Israel and the United States, tying the threat of another war to mounting disputes with the UN nuclear watchdog and Western powers over the country’s atomic program.
In remarks reported by the London-based outlet Iran International, Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said the Islamic Republic remains “under constant threat” following what Iranian and Israeli media have described as a 12‑day war targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities. “Every day we are threatened that if you take any action, we will attack again,” he told a government-sponsored conference on international law on Sunday.
Eslami repeated long‑standing accusations that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) failed to protect confidential data about Iranian sites, claiming the first Israeli strikes in the conflict hit a plant that produced fuel plates for the Tehran research reactor – a location he said was known only to the agency. He argued that before seeking new inspection “modalities,” the IAEA must “redefine itself” and clarify its responsibilities when facilities under its safeguards are attacked.
The comments came as Western governments consider a new resolution against Iran at the IAEA’s Board of Governors. Kazem Gharibabadi, a deputy foreign minister, warned that if such a measure is adopted, Tehran will undertake a “fundamental review” of its cooperation with the agency and even its broader non‑proliferation commitments, though he insisted the resolution would matter more for its political “message” than its practical impact.
A confidential IAEA report cited by Iran International said the agency lost its ability to verify Iran’s stockpile of near‑weapons‑grade uranium after U.S. and Israeli strikes on monitoring infrastructure during the 12‑day conflict. The last public report, from September, estimated Iran held 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60 percent – a level the IAEA chief has warned could, if further refined, provide enough material for up to 10 nuclear bombs, though he stressed no decision to build a weapon has been detected.
In parallel, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi used the same Tehran conference to frame the standoff in starkly binary terms, declaring that foreign powers must “choose” between the experience of the 2015 nuclear negotiations that produced the JCPOA and that of the recent 12‑day war. “We are prepared for both,” he said, portraying Iran as having quickly recovered militarily and insisting its nuclear program “was not destroyed” in the fighting.
Israeli media accounts cited by Iran International have claimed Israel struck 1,480 military targets inside Iran, flew 1,500 sorties and dropped some 3,500 munitions, killing around 30 senior Revolutionary Guard commanders, figures that cannot be independently verified. Former U.S. president Donald Trump has repeatedly hailed what he called a successful joint operation, asserting American strikes “destroyed Iran’s nuclear capability in seconds,” a claim Tehran flatly rejects.
Araghchi said requests for new talks with Iran resumed only because the military campaign failed to achieve its objectives, but he argued Washington is not yet ready for a “fair” negotiation and denied that any fresh diplomatic track with the United States is underway. Other officials, including deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh, have said that if talks ever resume, they will be “armed negotiations” conducted from a position of maximum mistrust and readiness for “effective actions” against perceived U.S. deception.
With the G7 urging full Iranian cooperation with the IAEA and direct talks with Washington, and Tehran threatening to escalate both its nuclear program and its regional posture if censured again, the latest statements amount to a calibrated warning: diplomacy remains on the table, but so does the prospect of a new war.
Photo: Mehr