Iran Says It Will Rebuild Nuclear Sites if Attacked

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has warned that even if Iran's nuclear facilities are attacked, Iran will rebuild them.

"They [US and Israel] threaten us by hitting our nuclear centers, but you cannot destroy the brains of our children. If you hit 100 nuclear centers, our children will build a thousand other ones," he said during his visit to the construction sites of phases 2 and 3 of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran on February 13, according to Iran’s Press TV.

Pezeshkian's remarks came after the Washington Post reported quoting current and former US officials familiar with the intelligence as saying that “Israel is likely to attempt a strike on Iran’s Fordow and Natanz nuclear facilities in the first six months of 2025”. This preemptive attack would set back Tehran’s program by weeks or perhaps months but escalate tensions across the Middle East and renew the prospect of a wider regional conflagration”.

A distance attack, known as a standoff strike, would see Israeli aircraft firing air-launched ballistic missiles, or ALBMs, outside of Iranian airspace, the intelligence report said. A riskier stand-in attack would see Israeli jets enter Iranian airspace, flying near the nuclear sites and dropping BLU-109s, a type of bunker buster.

Earlier, Iran's Air Force Chief Gen Hamid Vahedi warned that "we tell all countries, friends and foes alike, that our country's doctrine is defensive, but we will respond with force against any enemy attack."

Pezeshkian also criticized US policies on Iran during his speech in Bushehr, asking Trump "if you are a man of negotiations, why are you acting in an unmanly way and depriving people of bread and water?"

On February 10, US President Donald Trump raised the possibility of Israel hitting Iran in an interview with Fox News, saying he would prefer to make a deal with Iran. On February 6, the US imposed its first set of sanctions on Iran after Trump revived his so-called maximum pressure strategy against the Islamic Republic.

In his memorandum on February 4, Trump called on various US departments to reinstate the "maximum pressure" policy to persuade Iran to stop its nuclear and missile program and end its alleged support for terrorism. The order stated that the US would “implement a campaign aimed at driving Iran’s oil exports to zero”.

Meanwhile, the Iranian oil ministry announced in early February that crude exports had hit 10-year highs. At their lowest, Iran's oil exports dropped to 404,000 barrels per day when Trump's campaign was in full swing.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry on February 12 issued a statement criticizing US policy on Iran, saying that "negotiations with the US, which has explicitly adopted the imposition of extensive pressure on the Iranian nation and explicitly threatens Iran with military action, will not serve Iran's national interests".

The statement said that the sanctions imposed by Trump after leaving the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA) continued under President Joe Biden.

"The US government claims to be reinstating Maximum Pressure, but in reality, maximum pressure was never halted to be revived again," it said.

It also warned that Tehran would "respond in kind" to "any kind of aggression against its national security", in a possible reference to recent remarks by Trump which implied possible US approval for an Israeli attack on Iran.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s Director General, Rafael Grossi, said in late December that Iran is moving quickly toward obtaining a nuclear device, enriching uranium to near military grade, and refusing to cooperate effectively with the agency’s experts.