Trump warns of new strikes if Iran revives nuclear work

"One thing is clear to me, to Iran, and to those who attacked Iran: a lasting, permanent solution to this situation and to the doubts surrounding Iran’s nuclear program can only be diplomatic," Rafael Grossi said on a podcast hosted by Colombia’s Innovation for Development Foundation on Friday.

"Although attacks or military action may have short-term effects, the technical and technological capabilities exist — what was destroyed can be rebuilt," he added.

"I always remind all the parties involved that beyond missiles and bombs, the only lasting solution will have to be some form of new agreement to restore lost trust.”

Talks between Tehran and Western powers over the country's nuclear program remain stalled.

A sixth round of indirect US-Iran talks was suspended in June after Israel and the United States struck Iranian nuclear facilities, prompting waves of Iranian missile retaliation against Israel.

A preliminary US Defense Intelligence Agency assessment found the strikes may have delayed Iran’s nuclear program by only a few months, according to a report by Reuters.

However, US President Donald Trump has consistently said Iran’s nuclear facilities targeted in the attacks were “totally obliterated.”

In a confidential report leaked to reporters last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran's stock of near-weapons grade uranium had increased almost eight percent before Israel attacked its nuclear facilities on June 13.

The report shows Iran had 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60%, marking a 7.9% increase since the UN nuclear watchdog’s previous report in May.

Iran insists its nuclear program is for civilian use and denies pursuing the development or acquisition of nuclear weapons.

Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Friday said Berlin wants a negotiated solution to limit Iran’s nuclear program after the reimposition of United Nations sanctions.

The UN sanctions on Iran were reinstated on September 28 after the UK, France, and Germany (the E3) triggered the snapback mechanism under the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA).

The E3 said the decision followed “Iran rejecting two offers put on the table by the JCPoA coordinator in 2022 and further expanding its nuclear activities in clear breach of its JCPoA commitments.”

Iran has blamed the failure of the talks on what it calls Western powers’ “excessive demands.”

Speaking at a conference on “Nuclear Law in Peace, War and Post-War,” Baeidinejad said Iran’s nuclear file “has been with us for fifty years and will stay with us for another fifty.”

He described enrichment as “a very important national achievement” that cannot be separated from Iran’s future international relations.

He said reaching any new agreement on the issue would require long and exhausting negotiations, adding that “there is no easy or quick solution to such a complex international matter.”

Baeidinejad also said five rounds of indirect talks between Tehran and Washington over the summer failed to yield progress and that mutual distrust deepened after an Israeli strike in June.

According to him, “Iran’s only path forward is continued diplomacy, even if the process is difficult and slow.”

He called for international consensus to ban attacks on nuclear facilities, saying, “No one in Iran doubts that attacking nuclear installations must be absolutely prohibited and punishable under international law,” but acknowledged that building such a norm would take “years of study, debate and persuasion.”

Baeidinejad added that the 2015 deal’s snapback mechanism had been designed after lengthy talks to balance Iran’s demand for lifting UN sanctions with the powers’ insistence on retaining a safeguard. “More than a thousand hours of negotiations were devoted to this single issue,” he said.

He urged Iranian academics and research institutions to engage more deeply in nuclear law and safeguards, arguing that “we must become an active player in shaping global norms, not just a subject of them.”

The remarks came during a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tehran, where he said the session was held to brief diplomats on developments in New York and the reactivation of UN sanctions.

“Iran had sought a fair and balanced solution, but Western states responded negatively out of greed,” Araghchi said.

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“Years of pressure had proven that there is no solution to Iran’s nuclear issue other than diplomacy...The snapback of sanctions, like military attacks, cannot work.”

All UN sanctions suspended under the 2015 deal with Iran snapped back into force on September 27, one month after European powers triggered the snapback mechanism.

The three European countries had weakened their own diplomatic role by resorting to pressure, he said

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  Iran signals ‘strategic patience’ after rejecting latest US proposal - IRNA

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  Iran sanctions snapback heralds suffering, possible war

The Cairo agreement with the IAEA was no longer viable after the snapback, and Iran would redefine its framework for engagement under new conditions, according to the Iranian foreign minister.

Iran had demonstrated goodwill in its dealings with both Western powers and the IAEA, Araghchi said, adding that Tehran had “taken every step it could to reach a negotiated solution.”

“We showed goodwill through our cooperation with the Agency and our fair proposals. The West has no excuse to say Iran avoided talks, nor any justification for triggering the snapback mechanism… Iran’s position is now fully vindicated.”

The United Nations sanctions include restrictions on Iran’s nuclear and military activities, asset freezes on designated entities, and a duty to “exercise vigilance” when doing business with Iran.

France, Germany and the United Kingdom said in a joint statement the reimposition of sanctions was unavoidable after Iran’s breaches of the 2015 nuclear deal, citing enriched uranium stockpiles 48 times above agreed limits.

However, the foreign minister said Iran had proved it seeks only to secure its legitimate rights while remaining open to any fair diplomatic path.

“The last time there was an attack, more than 120 countries condemned it because Iran acted wisely,” Araghchi said. “Once again, Iran has shown it is a smart player that will not surrender its rights.”

On September 28, the United States deported a planeload of Iranians to Tehran in one of the Trump era's most controversial migrant return flights yet, to a country with severe rights concerns with which it has no diplomatic ties.

The plane, carrying 120 Iranians including three women, landed in Iran on September 29, according to the deportee speaking on condition of anonymity.

Abolfazl Mehrabadi, the acting head of Iran’s interests section in Washington DC, told the deportees at the departure airport that almost 2,500 other Iranians were in US immigration custody and were expected to be returned to Iran on special flights, according to the deportee.

The figure is far higher than what an Iranian Foreign Ministry director general reported on Tuesday. Hossein Noushabadi said the US immigration authorities intended to return nearly 400 Iranians to Iran.

US federal sources told Fox News on June 28 this year that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers had detained 130 Iranian nationals in various parts of the country within one week.

According to the sources cited by Fox, with the new arrests the number of Iranian citizens in ICE detention facilities had reached 670 at that time.

The network, citing the US Department of Homeland Security, reported ICE had detained 11 Iranian nationals in eight states, one of whom was a former member of the Revolutionary Guards who, according to the officials, admitted to links with Hezbollah.

No asylum rights

The deported Iranian speaking to Iran International painted a grim picture of life inside US detention centers.

“The conditions were very harsh. For five months I requested treatment for a stomach problem but was ignored. Diabetic patients or those with mental health issues were not given proper medication or food."

"The most they gave was simple medicine such as Tylenol (acetaminophen) or ibuprofen. Even for severe colds they only gave one Mucinex pill.”

According to the deportee, the way detainees were transferred was also extremely harsh: “They chained us together with handcuffs and shackles, and we sat like that for hours without water or access to toilets. No attention was paid to our basic human needs.”

“Husbands and wives were separated, even children born in the US were taken from their parents. Many of us had not even appeared before an immigration court. My own case was in the appeals stage, but no attention was given.”

Refugee conventions

Ali Herischi, an immigration lawyer in Washington DC area, told Iran International: “At the beginning of Mr. Trump’s presidency, it was announced that the United States would no longer accept asylum applications at the border, which is against international refugee treaties."

"They should have been given the right to present their defense, a process that has now been completely eliminated.”

Herischi pointed out that lawsuits have been filed against this process, adding that although in some states such as Texas the order has been blocked, plaintiffs still have not been able to obtain a final ruling to completely stop the enforcement of Trump’s directive.

According to Herischi, asylum seekers are given only a 10-minute hearing in court, although if they say they would be tortured upon return to Iran they would not be deported there but to another country and have no right to appeal.

Herischi said some asylum seekers have been held in prison for months, including some who are Christian converts.

The Iranian citizen deported from the US expressed surprise at the unusual cooperation between Tehran and Washington in carrying out the deportation.

“Had the Iranian government not agreed to a charter flight, the US could not have forced us back. Normally, for those with travel documents, they bought regular airline tickets. But once the charter flight was arranged, even those who didn’t want to return were forced onto it.”

He said: “If there had been no charter flight, many of us could have resisted. But they dragged us in chains on the officers’ shoulders and forced us into the seats.”

'Shocking' scenes

The Iranian asylum seeker recalled “shocking” scenes before the flight: “One detainee, in order not to return to Iran, slit his wrist with a razor and swallowed dozens of pills."

"Officers carried him on a stretcher while he was convulsing. Another cut his hands, but they just bandaged him and forced him on the same flight back to Iran.”

The flight started in Alexandria, Louisiana, he added, then stopped in Puerto Rico and Egypt before finally landing at a military base in Qatar: “There, Qatari officers used electric stun guns and force to put us on the Iranian plane. They dragged those who resisted on the ground, cursing and shoving them onto the plane.”

Fear, then surprise in Iran

The Iranian deportee said all deportees on this flight returned to Iran with fear of how the Islamic Republic would treat them: “We thought we would be treated very badly, but contrary to expectations the behavior was respectful."

"The Revolutionary Guards intelligence handed us confidential interrogation forms to write the reasons for our stay in the US, then returned our documents and passports, and even arranged free taxis and bus tickets for those who had no money or family.”

He added: “This behavior shocked us at first. Many of us thought we would be arrested, but it did not happen.”

Herischi, however, said that in past cases, Tehran authorities “certainly” follow up eventually with deported asylum seekers.

Senior Israeli officials were quoted by Hebrew media as calling Liberman’s post on X “bizarre and detached from reality.”

Defense officials cited by Channel 13 said that such comments could lead to a “miscalculation” in which Iran might assume Israel was preparing an assault and respond preemptively.

Sources cited by Ynet said Israel had chosen not to officially reply “so as not to bolster” Liberman’s remarks, adding there was “no substance to them.”

Liberman, head of the Yisrael Beytenu party and a former defense minister, wrote on X on Friday that “whoever thinks the conflict with Iran is over is misled and misleading,” saying that Tehran was restoring activity at its nuclear sites and “trying to surprise us.”

He urged Israelis to celebrate the Sukkot holiday “close to protected spaces,” adding, “This government cannot be trusted. Until we’ve fixed their damage, we have only ourselves and the IDF to rely on.”

In a new post on Saturday, he listed what he called “open-source intelligence,” showing Iran’s missile and nuclear activity since late July, including satellite images at Natanz, reports of missile tests, and new sanctions by the United States and Europe. “All these facts together must lead us to the conclusion that the Iranians are not seeking a Nobel Peace Prize, but revenge,” he wrote, adding that the next confrontation with Iran was “not a question of if, but when.”

The IDF Home Front Command said there were “no changes to its guidelines,” while defense officials accused Liberman of fearmongering.

Officials warn against political missteps

Defense sources told Hebrew outlets that intelligence agencies have not detected preparations for a new Iranian offensive or for Israel to launch one. They warned that inflammatory rhetoric from politicians could prompt Tehran to misread Israel’s posture.

Israeli assessments cited by Ynet indicate that Iran is attempting to rebuild its air defense systems destroyed in the June war and to restart limited ballistic missile production, reportedly seeking technical help from China, Russia, and possibly North Korea. However, the reports said there are no signs Iran has resumed uranium enrichment or nuclear weapons development, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has yet to decide on reactivating those programs.

Officials expressed concern that Iran’s suspension of cooperation with International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors has left critical blind spots, including uncertainty over its stockpile of roughly 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent. Intelligence officials view the chance of Iran producing a crude device or “dirty bomb” as remote.

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Kayhan says confrontation 'very probable'

In Tehran, Kayhan—a newspaper supervised by Khamenei’s office—published a Saturday editorial asserting that the world stands “on the brink of a historic turning point.” The paper said a renewed confrontation between Iran and what it called “the American-Zionist front was very probable,” citing Liberman’s own words as proof that Israel was bracing for another war it might not win.

“It is not necessarily the case that this time the opponent will strike first,” Kayhan wrote, arguing that Iran’s unity and deterrence capabilities had prevented its defeat in the 12-day war in June. The editorial linked economic volatility in Iran to foreign hybrid warfare and urged authorities to reinforce “military strength, domestic cohesion, and resistance economics” as protection against renewed aggression.

While Israel’s defense establishment insists calm prevails, Kayhan portrayed the same moment as an approaching inflection point—one in which, it warned, “the future will be shaped by vigilance and strength, or lost to weakness.”