The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Monday that only a negotiated solution can end the international standoff over Iran's nuclear program, as the diplomatic outlook following a 12-day war remains unclear.
“The solution cannot be military, as it is impossible to completely destroy the potential of such an important country with a technological and industrial base,” said IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi at a press conference in Warsaw on Monday.
Grossi emphasized that any lasting solution must include a robust verification mechanism.
“In each of the possible scenarios, a diplomatic agreement must be reached. The appropriate systemic verification should be part of such an agreement, and the necessary structure should be in place,” Grossi said.
“Otherwise, we will be dealing with a very fragile agreement,” he added.
Tehran has accused the IAEA of sharing sensitive information with Israel and the United States and of failing to condemn last month’s airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
IAEA inspectors remained in Tehran throughout the 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel but left the country last week.
Grossi said he remains hopeful about resuming cooperation with Iran soon, adding that talks are ongoing through intermediaries.
Iran’s state TV reported that Tehran believes Israel seeks further attacks which Trump is unlikely to oppose, as US news outlet Axios cited sources saying Israel sees Trump backing strikes on further nuclear activities.
“The (Israeli) regime seeks war, and we doubt Trump would oppose it. We, too, are in a state of full readiness,” state-run Press TV quoted what they called an informed Iranian source as saying.
Iran assesses the meeting due for Monday between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump will be no different from their consultations before the 12-day war, the report cited the source as saying.
The source described such meetings as “deceptive,” adding “everything has been agreed upon in advance.”
“If Trump believes that after a military strike on our nuclear program, we would trust a diplomatic agreement with them, then he is not a good dealmaker,” the source said, referring to the possibility of renewed nuclear talks between the United States and Iran.
The comments came as Axios reported Israeli officials believe Trump could give them the green light for renewed military action if Iran moves to restore elements of its nuclear program.
Israel is preparing for further strikes, with discussions between Trump and Netanyahu expected to focus on future US nuclear negotiations and potential triggers for renewed Israeli attacks, Axios cited two sources with knowledge of the matter as saying.
Israeli officials cited two scenarios: an Iranian attempt to extract enriched uranium from the damaged Fordow, Natanz or Isfahan sites, or efforts to rebuild enrichment facilities, the report said.
According to Axios, Netanyahu’s top adviser Ron Dermer told colleagues he left Washington last week convinced the Trump administration would support Israeli military action under certain conditions.
Dermer held meetings with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House envoy Steve Witkoff.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told US right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson that Israel was seeking to embroil the United States in a Mideast 'forever war', in his first international interview since US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
“Netanyahu, as I said, has his own agenda. He wants to drag the US into forever wars… and to bring more insecurity and unrest to the whole region," Pezeshkian told Carlson in the virtual discussion, referring to the Israeli Prime Minister.
Carlson is an outspoken critic of US military action against Iran and a top dissenter from among President Donald Trump's populist base. The US President dismissed his views as "kooky".
Pezeshkian, a relative moderate, has advocated for greater engagement with Washington but hardline Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ultimately decides policy.
Responding to a question on whether two senior clerics had issued a fatwa to kill Trump, Pezeshkian said, “To the best of my knowledge, they have not issued decrees or fatwas against any individual or against Donald Trump. It has nothing to do with the Iranian government or the Supreme Leader of Iran."
"What they actually meant by the fatwa was the condemnation of an insult to a religion or religious personalities … It should not be construed or considered as a threat against an individual.”
Last month, Alireza Panahian, a hardline Iranian cleric close to Iran’s Supreme Leader called on Muslims to kill Trump and Netanyahu in response to their threats against Khamenei, citing fatwas that declare him a mohareb, or “enemy of God.”
Najmuddin Tabasi, a member of the Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom, said Trump “must be executed” and warned that “the same hand that fired a shot past his ear can put a bullet through his throat.”
Referring to recent fatwas by Ayatollahs Naser Makarem Shirazi and Hossein Nouri Hamedani, Tabasi said he was confident that “brave youth will deprive Trump of security.”
Pezeshkian also denied Iran had sought to kill Trump in an alleged plot detailed by US law enforcement last year.
'No problem' with reviving talks
Iran has never pursued nuclear weapons, Pezeshkian said, citing religious prohibitions and cooperation with international inspectors.
“We have never been after developing a nuclear bomb—not in the past, not presently or in the future—because this is wrong. And this is in contrast to the religious decree or the fatwa which has been issued by the Supreme Leader … so it is religiously forbidden for us to go after a nuclear bomb.”
Ongoing conflict with Israel had sabotaged nuclear negotiations, he said, adding that talks with the US had been progressing when Israel launched attacks on Iran.
“We were sitting at the negotiating table when it happened. And by doing this, they totally ruined and destroyed diplomacy.”
“We see no problem in reentering the negotiations. But how are we going to trust the United States again? We reentered the negotiations. Then how can we know for sure that in the middle of the talks, the Israeli regime will not be given the permission again to attack us?”
White House envoy Steve Witkoff is planning to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Oslo next week to relaunch nuclear talks, Axios reported on Thursday, citing two sources familiar with the preparations.
The meeting would mark the first direct engagement since President Trump ordered strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last month. Neither side has publicly acknowledged the planned talks.
Alleged Israeli assassination attempt
Pezeshkian said Israel had attempted to assassinate him, describing a strike on a meeting he attended. There was no immediate Israeli or independent corroboration of his claim.
“They did try, yes, and they acted accordingly, but they failed. I am not afraid of sacrificing myself in defense of my country."
Israeli escalation would only deepen regional instability, he warned.
“Will it bring peace and tranquility and stability to the region? It was not the US that was behind the attempt on my life. It was Israel. But as I told you before, it is God who wills when a person will die.”
Pezeshkian framed the conflict as a product of Israeli ambitions and urged Washington to avoid becoming entangled.
“My proposal is that the US administration should refrain from getting involved in a war that is not America’s war. It is Netanyahu’s war that is having its own agenda … an inhuman agenda, and that is having forever wars, wars that go on and on.”
'Death to America' misunderstood
The Iranian president said that “Death to America” slogans were misunderstood. “They don’t mean death to the people of the United States, or even to the officials. They mean death to crime, death to killing and carnage, death to supporting killing others.”
Pezeshkian also said Ali Khamenei has no objection to the operation of US businesses in Iran even under the currency circumstances, and there has never been any limitation from Tehran’s side, attributing barriers to American sanctions.
"The Supreme Leader told me American investors are welcome in Iran. There is no limitation and there's nothing preventing the US investors from coming to Iran to make investments, even presently," he said.
“It is not to be in the interest of the United States to be involved in any kind of war in my region,” he said. “It is up to the United States president to choose … whether to replace war mongering and bloodshed with peace and tranquility.”
Iranian missiles struck five Israeli military facilities during last month’s 12-day war, according to satellite radar data reviewed by US researchers and published by The Telegraph on Saturday.
The data, provided by a research group at Oregon State University, suggest that six Iranian missiles hit military targets across northern, central, and southern Israel, including what the report describes as a major air base, an intelligence facility, and a logistics center.
“The radar signatures we analyzed show definitive blast patterns at five separate military sites,” Corey Scher, a researcher with the Oregon State team, told The Telegraph. “These are consistent with missile strikes that likely occurred during the height of the conflict.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declined to confirm or deny the reported damage. “What we can say is that all relevant units maintained functional continuity throughout the operation,” a military spokesman told The Telegraph.
The Telegraph reported that the missile strikes described in the radar data appear to be separate from the 36 previously reported impacts on residential and industrial areas, which caused widespread damage.
Iranian missile penetration increased during conflict, report says
According to The Telegraph, the proportion of Iranian missiles that penetrated Israeli air defenses increased during the war, rising from about 2 percent early in the conflict to roughly 16 percent by day seven.
The report did not offer definitive reasons for the increase, but cited expert suggestions that the causes “may include the rationing of a limited stock of interceptor missiles on the Israeli side and improved firing tactics and the possible use of more sophisticated missiles by Iran.”
Iranian officials told The Telegraph that the use of simultaneous drone and missile attacks was intended to confuse Israeli defense systems. “Many [drones] don’t even get through—but they still cause confusion,” one unnamed Iranian official said.
The Israeli media on Friday quoted a military official as saying that Iran began the conflict with around 400 missile launchers and that “we destroyed more than 200 of them, which caused a bottleneck in their missile operations.”
The same official estimated that Iran started the war with 2,000 to 2,500 ballistic missiles and is pursuing mass production that could dramatically expand its arsenal.
A more comprehensive analysis of the damage to both Israeli and Iranian infrastructure is expected from the Oregon State research group within two weeks, according to the report.
The group uses radar-based methods that detect changes in the built environment, but it acknowledged that full confirmation of military site hits would require either on-the-ground access or high-resolution satellite imagery.
Former US national security advisor and veteran Iran hawk John Bolton hopes a White House meeting between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu will pave the way for Tehran's downfall.
“I think here's where they should discuss the terms of, in effect, the surrender of the Ayatollahs,” Bolton said, calling for sustained pressure to build on military successes in a 12-day Israel-Iran war to pave the way for the collapse of Iran's theocracy.
Trump is due to receive Netanyahu on Monday in their first meeting since US and Israeli strikes targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities, missile infrastructure and command centers, killing as many up to 1,200 Iranians. 24 Israelis were killed in Iranian attacks.
Netanyahu has said he will also meet Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
A weakened Islamic Republic
Bolton argued that the strikes which crippled key military sites and killed senior commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), have pushed the Islamic Republic's leadership to the brink.
“The aerial strikes are really a substantial destabilizing factor,” he said. “They demonstrate beyond a doubt the Ayatollahs are no longer able to defend their own country. They can be pushed about at will.”
The Islamic Republic, Bolton argued, is at its most vulnerable point since the 1979 revolution, weakened not just militarily but also internally, citing longstanding discontent, particularly among youth, women, and ethnic minorities.
“We're within sight of it, which is why it would be such a tragedy to let up now and let it slip between our fingers,” said Bolton.
There have been few significant protests during or after the conflict.
Ceasefire 'mistake'
Although Bolton praised the initial decision to strike Iran’s nuclear program, he criticized the subsequent US-brokered ceasefire as “a mistake.”
“Our military knows that you don't know exactly how much damage has been done in the first hours after an attack,” he said. “We were in complete control of the skies ... (and) that gave us time ... to decide where additional attacks might be necessary.”
Instead, Bolton said the ceasefire gave Iran breathing room at a critical moment. He attributes that decision, in part, to Trump’s desire to appear as a global dealmaker.
“Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize and I think he believes that after a very successful US military strike that he could broker it,” said Bolton. “It's always in personal terms for Trump. It's not about American national security interests or Israel or Iran, it's about what makes him look best.”
The president and Bolton spectacularly fell out in public and Trump has repeatedly insulted his ex-subordinate and pulled his government security detail.
Bolton accused the administration of prioritizing loyalty and optics over expertise, pointing to Trump’s appointment of real estate developer Steve Witkoff as Iran envoy.
“Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff… has no concept what he's dealing with when he negotiates with the Ayatollahs, no knowledge of nuclear weapons or the risk of nuclear proliferation,” said Bolton.
Critics have raised concerns about 900 pounds of uranium enriched to 60 percent that remains unaccounted for. Bolton said strikes on Esfahan and other sites likely destroyed key elements required to turn that material into a weapon.
“They may have a lot of partially enriched uranium hexafluoride gas,” he said, “but it's a long way to go from that to actually making a nuclear weapon.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Friday that its team of inspectors had safely departed Iran to return to its headquarters in Vienna, after a new law barred cooperation with the UN body.
In a statement on X, the agency said Director General Rafael Grossi had “reiterated the crucial importance” of holding talks with Iranian authorities to resume the IAEA’s “indispensable” monitoring and verification work “as soon as possible.”
The inspectors had remained in Tehran throughout the 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel.
The announcement follows a report by the Wall Street Journal that the inspectors were pulled out over safety concerns and transported by road to Armenia in a departure coordinated with Iranian authorities.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, the newspaper reported that the agency had been trying to arrange the exit for several days and chose ground transport to reduce visibility and risk.
The move comes after weeks of rising tensions between Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog. On Wednesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian enacted a law requiring the suspension of cooperation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty’s safeguards agreement unless Iran’s demands for security guarantees are met.
Tehran has accused the IAEA of sharing sensitive data with Israel and the US, and of failing to condemn last month’s airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
While Iran has denied ending cooperation entirely, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said coordination with the agency would now be managed through Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
This is while hardline Iranian media have called for Grossi's arrest and execution, and a senior judiciary official said Grossi could face trial in absentia for “deceptive actions.”
It remains unclear when or whether IAEA inspectors will return. WSJ reporter Laurence Norman said there is “no reason to feel confident” they will be back in Tehran anytime soon, adding that it could be years before monitoring operations resume.