Tehran, June 27 -- Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Thursday acknowledged that US and Israeli strikes had done "serious harm" to its nuclear sites, directly contradicting the stance of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the country's paramilitary group, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
"This damage has not been minor - serious harm has been done to our facilities. They are currently conducting a thorough assessment of the damage," he said in an interview with the state broadcaster IRIB News, referring to Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, reports Iran International.
Khamenei had earlier boasted that Iran had dealt a "crushing blow" to the Israeli Defence Forces, and said that the US airstrikes on June 22 did ve...