Iran did not move its highly enriched uranium stockpile before US airstrikes last month hit its key nuclear sites at Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan, an Israeli official told Reuters.
A senior Israeli official told Reuters the stockpile — estimated at 400 kilograms enriched to 60 percent — “was not removed and has not been moved since,” suggesting Iran made no attempt to safeguard the material before or after the strikes.
The official, who was not named, added that Iran may still be able to access the stockpile at Isfahan, but moving it would be very difficult.
“The Iranians might still be able to gain access to Isfahan but it would be hard to remove any of the material there,” wrote Reuters, citing the official.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had assessed before the war that most of the 60 percent enriched uranium was being stored at the Isfahan site.
Satellite imagery taken before US strikes on three key Iranian nuclear sites showed “unusual” activity near the entrance to Iran’s Fordow enrichment facility.16 cargo trucks were seen Thursday on the access road to the tunnel entrance, but by Friday most had relocated to an area about one kilometer northwest, Maxar Technologies said.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors have not publicly confirmed the condition of the stockpile since the strikes, and Iran has not allowed independent verification of the facilities since the war began.
The IAEA 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.
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.
Israel must prevent Iran from restoring its prewar capabilities, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday.
“We need to formulate an enforcement program to prevent Iran from reviving the capabilities it had before,” Katz said. “The Iranians will try in every possible way to learn their lessons and recover. The enemy is learning and preparing — and our challenge is to step up our abilities so that we are not taken by surprise.”
US President Donald Trump says the airstrikes obliterated the sites, but nuclear experts have expressed caution over the full extent of the damage, raising the possibility that some nuclear assets may have been hidden.
France’s top intelligence official, Nicolas Lerner, said Tuesday that the strikes had “very seriously affected” all stages of Iran’s nuclear program but acknowledged, a small part of Iran’s highly-enriched uranium stockpile had been destroyed, but the rest remained in the hands of the authorities.
"Today we have indications (on where it is), but we cannot say with certainty as long as the IAEA does not restart its work. It's very important. We won't have the capacity to trace it (the stocks)," Lerner said.
“Trump has done something so that he can no longer sunbathe in Mar-a-Lago," Mohammad-Javad Larijani, a former senior advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader, said in an interview with state TV that has recently gone viral on social media.
"As he lies there with his stomach to the sun, a small drone might hit him in the navel. It’s very simple,” added Larijani, whose two brothers are among the Islamic Republic’s most powerful political figures.
Iranian clerics have called on Muslims to kill Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in retaliation for their threats on the life of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during the conflict.
US forces attacked three Iranian nuclear sites in a bid to disable Tehran's disputed program days after Trump said Washington was well aware of where Khamenei was sheltering during the war.
Larijani's comments came after an online platform calling itself "blood pact" began raising funds for what it calls “retribution against those who mock and threaten the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.” The site says to have collected over $40 million to date.
It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the figure.
Bounty for Trump’s head
“We pledge to award the bounty to anyone who can bring the enemies of God and those who threaten the life of Ali Khamenei to justice,” a statement on the site said.
The campaign's stated aim is to raise $100 million for the killing of Donald Trump. It remains unclear who operates the site.
However, Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, reported the launch of the Blood Pact initiative and called on religious groups in Iran and abroad to rally in front of Western embassies and central squares to express support for Khamenei.
The outlet also urged the application of “Islamic rulings on moharebeh” against both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In the Iranian legal system, moharebeh—literally “waging war against God”—is punishable by death.
President Masoud Pezeshkian sought to distance his government from the campaign, telling US commentator Tucker Carlson on Monday that “the fatwa of warfare has nothing to do with the Iranian government or the Supreme Leader.”
But Kayhan newspaper, overseen by a representative of Khamenei, dismissed the president's remark.
“This is not an academic opinion. It is a clear religious ruling in defense of faith, sanctities and especially the guardianship of the jurist,” it wrote in a Tuesday editorial, referring to Iran's system of clerical rule.
Any future “fire-starter” would face retaliation, the newspaper added concluding that “The Islamic Republic will drown Israel in blood.”
Former lawmaker Gholamali Jafarzadeh Imenabadi earlier condemned Kayhan’s position, saying: “I can’t believe Kayhan’s editor-in-chief Hossein Shariatmadari is Iranian ... saying Trump should be assassinated will bring the cost down on the people.”
In response, Kayhan wrote: “Today, avenging Trump is nearly a national demand. It is Imenabadi’s words that are out of step with Iranian values."
Trump has been a target for assassination threats since he ordered the 2020 killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq.
Last year, US law enforcement accused the IRGC of organizing a plot to kill Trump in retaliation for his order to assassinate Soleimani.