Iranian foreign minister says US strikes 'destroyed' nuclear facilities

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said that the U.S. strikes last month "destroyed" his country's nuclear facilities.

Araghchi told Fox News on Monday that Iran will keep seeking uranium enrichment.

“It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up [on] enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” Araghchi said, The Hill news outlet reported.

He later added that the “facilities have been destroyed.”

Iran has the ability to rebuild its nuclear facilities, and it won't stop enriching uranium, Araghchi said.

“If the goal is to make sure that Iran will never have nuclear weapons, that is achievable,” he explained.

“It is developed by ourselves. It is an achievement by ourselves. The technology is there. The scientists are there, the people who have run these facilities are there. Buildings can be rebuilt. Facilities can be rebuilt. Machines can be replaced,” Araghchi said. 

“I think the recent attack proved that there is no military option for our nuclear program,” he added.

President Trump and other government officials have said that the June 21st U.S. strikes on Iran's three nuclear sites “completely destroyed” them.

Last week, multiple news outlets reported on a recent intelligence assessment that said one of the nuclear facilities was mostly destroyed, but that the other two were not and could potentially resume uranium enrichment.

Both the White House and the Department of Defense pushed back on the assessment, saying that the strikes obliterated all three sites.

The Pentagon's chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, said earlier this month that the DOD's assessments indicated that Iran's nuclear program was set back by “one to two years.”