Iran's UN Ambassador: Iran’s nuclear enrichment will ‘never stop'

The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, said his country will “never stop” nuclear enrichment, saying it’s an “inalienable right” that Iran plans on exercising.

In an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” moderator Margaret Brennan pressed the Iranian ambassador on whether Iran intends to “reconstitute a nuclear enrichment program on its soil.”

Iravani cited a provision of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that says non-nuclear-weapon states have a right to peaceful nuclear technology, including uranium enrichment, as long as it remains within certain limits.

“So the enrichment is our right, and an inalienable right, and we want to implement this right,” Iravani said.

“So you do plan to restart enrichment, that sounds like?” Brennan responded.

“I think that enrichment will not- never stop,” he said.

Trump ordered U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites last weekend, as another round of talks were set to begin as the Trump administration sought to broker a nuclear deal with Iran.

Many Democrats have said that questions remain about the success of the strikes, which the administration has touted as a resounding success.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe and other top intelligence officials briefed lawmakers this past week for the first time about the June 21 strike. The meeting was held as Trump administration officials have worked overtime to push their argument that the attacks left Iran’s nuclear facilities “obliterated.”

Reports emerged Tuesday about a preliminary assessment that said the U.S. strikes may have set the Iranian nuclear program back by “a few months.” The administration has pushed back forcefully at those reports, including at a Pentagon briefing earlier Thursday.