In an interview, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Iran will not give up its uranium enrichment program despite U.S. insistence and that “serious” damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities was caused by U.S. airstrikes. Araghchi would not comment on the fate of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, but said that all enrichment activities had ceased for the time being and that the extent of the damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities is being evaluated by the atomic energy organization. 

Brian Assi (Brahim Assi), a Lebanon–based salesman for a multinational heavy-machinery maker with a U.S. subsidiary in Alachua, Florida, was sentenced to 44 months in prison for a scheme to export two U.S.-origin blasthole drill rigs to Iran via Turkey and Iraq. Assi conspired with Tehran-based Sakht Abzar Pars Co. to carry out the illegal export, in which he arranged for an Iraq-based distributor to purchase the machinery and used freight forwarders to ship it to Iraq and Turkey. His Iran-based co-conspirators then intended to re-export the machines from Turkey to Iran. As part of the scheme, Assi entered false information into the U.S. Automated Export System (AES) database and falsely informed his employer that the Iraq-based distributor was the ultimate consignee for the drill rigs. Assi and his co-conspirators also caused approximately USD $2.7 million from the illicit transaction in Turkey to pass through the U.S. financial system.

A new U.S. assessment found that U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites in June largely destroyed the Fordow site, setting back uranium enrichment work by as much as two years, but that the other two sites were not as badly damaged. Iran may be able to resume uranium enrichment at these locations in the next several months, according to the assessment. The U.S. and Israeli government have been discussing whether additional strikes on the two less damaged facilities could be necessary if Iran does not agree to resume nuclear negotiations with the United States, or if there are signs that Iran is trying to rebuild at those locations. 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, along with the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, set the end of August as the de facto deadline for reaching a nuclear deal with Iran. If no deal is reached, the European countries plan to trigger the “snapback” of U.N. Security Council sanctions, which were lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran might avoid this outcome by allowing the resumption of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitoring and the removal of roughly 400 kg of 60% enriched uranium. The snapback process is expected to take 30 days and would therefore be concluded before Russia assumes the rotating presidency of the Security Council in October.