71 killed in Israeli attack on Iran prison, official says

Iran's foreign minister said on Thursday that his country’s nuclear facilities were not completely destroyed and suggested Tehran still holds some leverage in potential future negotiations over its nuclear program.

"They thought they would completely destroy our nuclear facilities and leave our hands empty in negotiations, then say, ‘Come to negotiate.’ This didn't happen," Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister said on Iranian State TV.

"The same won't happen with snapback, meaning it's not that the Europeans' hands will be full; on the contrary, their hands will be completely empty," he added.

Snapback is the term to describe the mechanism in the 2015 nuclear agreement that would quickly reimpose United Nations sanctions on Iran if it didn’t meet its nuclear commitments. The UK, France, Germany, Russia and China can trigger the mechanism if they find Iran in violation of the agreement. The U.S. lost that ability when President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in his first term.

Araghchi also described what a potential nuclear agreement might look like even after the military strikes by the U.S. and Israel.

"Any potential agreement should have two main pillars: enrichment in Iran and the lifting of sanctions. On the other hand, there could also be another pillar, which is Iran's commitment to not moving towards a nuclear weapon," he said. "This is because it aligns with our standards, principles, and beliefs. We have no problem with this either. Therefore, if these three axes exist in any agreement, in our view, the possibility of reaching that agreement exists. Now, the details can be discussed."

Israel did not destroy all of Iran's highly enriched uranium and tried to kill Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during its operation, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in an interview to Channel 13 on Thursday evening.

When asked about the 408 kilograms of highly enriched uranium the Iranians had before the war and if it was moved inside Iran or taken out of the country, Katz said, "It was clear from the outset of our attack that we would not eliminate all of the material. The shared U.S.-Israeli position is that the Iranians will be asked to hand over that material."

Israel tried during the war with Iran to assassinate Khamanei, but there was "no operational opportunity to do so," Katz said.

He laughed off the suggestion Israel would need "permission" from the U.S. He denied it was "forbidden" by the U.S.

Iran is still evaluating if and how they will work with the International Atomic Energy Agency in light of a new bill passed in Iran’s Parliament Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Iranian state TV Thursday.

Whether or not Iran will stay in the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty, also known as the NPT, needs to be investigated, Araghchi said. Iran will "act accordingly with the interest of the country," he added.

One of the reasons Iran cannot maintain the same relationship with the IAEA as it had before the 12-day war is because the IAEA did not condemn Israel and the US’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities, he said.

"The IAEA Director-General should have done this," referring to condemning Israel and the U.S.'s attacks on Iran’s’ nuclear facilities, Araghchi said. “Attacking nuclear facilities is an unforgivable crime from international law."

Araghchi said the law passed by Iran’s Parliament will be further investigated by the Iranian government and said the new law hasn’t completely blocked a path for cooperation with the IAEA.

"We need to perform more legal work on this law and decide how we can set our relations with the IAEA," Araghchi said.

The IAEA inspections have stopped inside Iran, Araghchi said.

Iran has not reached an agreement to return to negotiations with the U.S. on its nuclear program and no date for a potential meeting to re-start the negotiations has been set, the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Iranian state TV Thursday.

Araghchi said speculation about negotiations resuming should not be taken seriously.

"I would like to state clearly that no agreement, appointment or conversation has been made to start new negotiations," Araghchi said.

Araghchi also said the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran will only be more difficult after the U.S. and Israel’s military actions.

"The next negotiations won’t be any easier for the Americans compared to the previous ones," Araghchi said. "Human beings have been killed for it. It’s not possible to make an agreement on it as easy as before."