Iran’s nuclear chief: We will not give up enrichment or hand over stockpile

Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said Tehran will "under no circumstances" abandon uranium enrichment or hand over its enriched stockpile, adding that inspections of bombed facilities are impossible while security threats persist.

Iran will not give up uranium enrichment, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, said on Thursday. Asked whether Tehran could abandon enrichment, he said: "Under no circumstances. How can you claim to have a nuclear industry without having the starting point of the process?"

Eslami also ruled out handing over Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile: "No, there is no such thing." Halting enrichment and transferring the stockpile to the United States are among the Trump administration’s key conditions for an agreement to end the war.

Satellite view of the Natanz nuclear facility (June 2025)

No inspections of bombed sites

Inspections of nuclear facilities damaged in US-Israeli attacks remain impossible because of continuing security threats, Eslami said. "The agency itself knows that the facilities have been bombed and that the threat remains active."

He said IAEA inspectors had visited facilities that were not targeted and carried out routine inspections under arrangements made by Tehran, but accused the agency of failing to acknowledge this and of acting under US and Israeli pressure to gather information about damaged sites.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi and Mohammad Eslami (2021)

Background

Iran’s parliament passed a law in June 2025 suspending cooperation with the IAEA after attacks on the Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan facilities, making inspections conditional on security guarantees and approval by the Supreme National Security Council. Natanz was struck again in March 2026. Eslami was responding to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s remark that Iran had lost its chance for a nuclear deal.