Foreign Minister: Iran Wants 'Compensation for Damages' to Nuclear Sites

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi suggested in an interview on Thursday that Iran will be demanding “compensation for damages” to its illicit nuclear development sites in any future diplomatic engagements with America after President Donald Trump approved airstrikes targeting the facilities.

Araghchi indicated that no plans currently exist to reboot the Iran-U.S. talks that began in April. Araghchi led a delegation to meet with Trump’s special envoy on the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, via the mediation of the government of Oman for five rounds of talks. The two sides never agreed on the objective of the talks — the Americans insisted the goal was limiting the threat of Iran’s illicit uranium enrichment, while Iran claimed the goal was to convince the United States to lift sanctions on Iran — and the two sides never came to an agreement on a framework for a nuclear deal to replace the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

A sixth round of talks was postponed indefinitely after the government of Israel launched a military operation on June 13 to eliminate some of Iran’s top military officials, following a resolution by the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) condemning Iran’s violations of international law regarding nuclear non-proliferation. The Israeli operation eliminated the head of the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hossein Salami, the chief of staff of the armed forces, multiple nuclear scientists, and other top officials. Israel also managed to significantly degrade Iran’s missile stockpiles and equipment such as missile launchers.

The United States entered the conflict on June 21. President Donald Trump confirmed that day that he had ordered airstrikes to destroy three key nuclear sites — Isfahan, Fordow, and Natanz — and declared the uranium enrichment facilities “completely and totally obliterated.” IAEA chief Rafael Grossi appeared to confirm significant destruction of the sites in an interview on Wednesday, stating that the intelligence the agency possesses indicates that the centrifuges used to enrich uranium, at least at Fordow, were entirely inoperable.

With the caveat that Iran had expelled IAEA inspectors and not accepted his offer to send inspectors to help assess the damage after the strikes, Grossi told Radio France International (RFI), “we know that, given the potency of these artifacts [the bombs] and the technical characteristics of a centrifuge, these centrifuges are no longer operational.” Grossi referred specifically to Fordow, which he described as the most notorious of the Iranian enrichment sites. 

Discussing the potential for a return to nuclear talks with America on Thursday, Araghchi indicated that Iran would demand America pay for the reconstruction of the nuclear sites.

“In the talks, we firmly defended the rights of the Iranian people, but the American side, frustrated at failing to achieve its goals, resorted to war and allowed the Israeli regime to attack Iran,” Aragchi complained, according to a translation of his statements by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). The top diplomat accused America of a “betrayal of diplomacy” and asserted that Iran would change its approach.

“Regarding the possibility of resuming talks with the U.S., the top Iranian diplomat said that there is no agreement or plan to return to negotiations,” IRNA reported, “adding that any decision will be made solely based on Iran’s national interests and the welfare of its people.”

While Iran allegedly remains “committed to diplomacy,” he allegedly stated, “new realities” created by the U.S. airstrikes would require the conversation to address new issues that did not exist at the time of the last Oman-mediated negotiation cycle.

“Compensation for damages has now become a serious issue,” IRNA paraphrased Araghchi as stating.

The report indicated that Araghchi was specifically referring to potential compensation for the destruction at Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow — sites that Witkoff had named specifically as having to be shut down as part of any negotiation.

“An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line,” Witkoff told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview in May. “No enrichment.”

“That means dismantlement, it means no weaponization, and it means that Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan—those are their three enrichment facilities — have to be dismantled,” he specified.

It is highly unlikely that the Trump administration would accept paying Iran for the destruction of sites that it sought to dismantle through diplomatic means. Araghchi did not clarify if Iran would accept talks at all, however, and, according to quotes from Iran’s Tasnim News Agency from the same interview, Araghchi stated that Tehran and Washington have not yet discussed any such new talks directly.

“No agreement has been made on the restart of negotiations. There has not even been any talk of negotiations. The subject of negotiations is out of question at present,” he reportedly said.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) asserted following the strikes that it planned to restore the sites damaged and continue to enrich uranium.

“Despite the evil conspiracies of its enemies, with the efforts of its thousands of revolutionary and motivated scientists and experts,” the AEOI declared, “it [Iran] will not allow the path of development of this national industry, which is the result of the blood of nuclear martyrs, to be stopped.”

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