The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog leader announced that the centrifuges at Iran’s underground Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plant are not working anymore. This supports the Trump administration’s belief that recent attacks have hindered Iran’s nuclear weapon ambitions.

Rafael Grossi, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), pointed out that describing Iran’s facilities at Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz as “destroyed” is an exaggeration. However, he confirmed that the centrifuges are indeed not operational.

Grossi emphasized the extensive damage caused by the recent strikes on Iran’s facilities. He mentioned in an interview with Radio France Internationale that the impact on the sites was significant and severe.

The Argentine refrained from estimating how far Iran’s nuclear program had been set back by Saturday’s strikes, but confirmed that “with these reduced capacities, it will be much more difficult for Iran to continue at the same pace as before.”

A precise assessment of the damage to each site will require ground-level assessments with access that the Iranian authorities have been unwilling to give.

However, Grossi explained that centrifuges, which are needed to spin uranium material rapidly in order to enrich it to weapons-grade levels, are very sensitive to vibrations and require precision to work properly.

“There was no escaping significant physical damage,” he told RFI of the effect of America’s bombs. “So we can come to a fairly accurate technical conclusion.”

President Trump has been adamant that Iran’s facilities were “obliterated,” but a leaked “low confidence” preliminary assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) reported by multiple outlets Tuesday suggested the attack only set the program back by several months.

CIA director John Ratcliffe later claimed that the strikes “severely damaged” Iran’s nuclear programs, citing a “body of credible intelligence.” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard made a similar assertion.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine held a press briefing Thursday morning, intended to refute claims that the strikes may not have completely destroyed the nuclear work being done in those facilities.

Trump also hit back at fears that Iran may have transferred its enriched uranium out of Fordow.

“The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out of [the] facility,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday. “Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!”

Iranian propagandists and leadership have tried to project an image of business as usual.

“The US hit nuclear sites but couldn’t achieve much,” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared in a televised speech Thursday. “US President Trump needed to do showmanship.”

Khamenei also claimed victory over Israel and the US despite the clear drubbing Iran weathered and its failure to breach American defenses of the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar during retaliatory strikes carried out Monday.

IAEA inspectors had been monitoring Iran’s nuclear program in keeping with the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty.

However, on Wednesday, Iran’s Parliament moved to end cooperation with the watchdog and boot its inspectors from the country.