ByREUTERS, JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Tehran will rebuild its nuclear facilities “with greater power,” Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian told state media on Sunday, adding that the country does not seek a nuclear weapon.

US President Donald Trump has warned that he would order fresh attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites should Tehran try to restart facilities that the United States bombed in June.

Pezeshkian made his comments during a visit to the country’s Atomic Energy Organization, during which he met with senior managers from Iran’s nuclear industry.

n claims program for civilian purposes

“Destroying buildings and factories will not create a problem for us; we will rebuild and with greater strength,” the Iranian president told state media.

Tehran maintains that its nuclear program is for purely civilian purposes.

“It’s all intended for solving the problems of the people, for disease, for the health of the people,” Pezeshkian said in reference to Iran’s nuclear activities.

An Iranian missile system is displayed next to a banner with a picture of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during Iranian Defence Week, in a street in Tehran, Iran, September 25, 2025. (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA)
An Iranian missile system is displayed next to a banner with a picture of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during Iranian Defence Week, in a street in Tehran, Iran, September 25, 2025. (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA)

Iran’s nuclear facilities were targeted in Operation Rising Lion in June, leaving them “obliterated” according to Yossi Cohen, former head of the Mossad. Cohen claimed that he knows with certainty that “Iran cannot enrich any more uranium these days.”

In June, US President Trump said at a press conference that all the enriched uranium Iran had was inside sites bombed during the operation, calling Iran’s nuclear program “completely and totally obliterated.” At the time, Trump said he was unsure if the US needed to make a deal with Iran at all due to the levels of destruction at the Iranian nuclear facilities.

‘Keep dreaming,’ Ayatollah tells Trump

However, in October, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed that the US had not destroyed Iran’s nuclear industry, telling President Trump to “keep dreaming.“

Iran has recently scrapped a cooperation deal that it signed with the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA in September, its Supreme National Security Council Secretary announced on the same day, according to state media.

This announcement comes after the US announced its intentions to resume nuclear weapons testing on Thursday, with Iranian officials condemning the decision.