Iran nuclear programme 'very delayed' by strikes: French intel chief

Iran's nuclear programme has been "very, very delayed" by US and Israeli strikes, France's foreign intelligence chief said on Tuesday, wading into a contentious debate over just how hard it was hit.

US President Donald Trump has insisted that Iran's key nuclear facilities were "obliterated" in last month's air strikes, angrily bashing assessments to the contrary, including, reportedly, by his own administration.

Asked how much the strikes had delayed Iran's nuclear programme, Nicolas Lerner, head of the DGSE French spy agency, said: "Undeniably various months, certainly."

"Our assessment today is that every stage of the process", from enriching uranium to designing a nuclear warhead and mounting it on a missile, "was very seriously affected, very seriously damaged", Lerner told French news channel LCI.

"The Iranian nuclear programme as we know it has been very, very delayed," he said.

He added that the assessment "nevertheless... needs to be fine-tuned".

"No intelligence service in the world was capable in the hours after these strikes of making a perfect, full evaluation of what happened," he said.

The Pentagon has said that the strikes delayed Iran's nuclear programme by between one and two years, contradicting an initial classified US intelligence report that according to American media found the setback was only by a few months.

Lerner said it was important to remain "cautious", notably over the unknown whereabouts of Iran's highly enriched uranium stockpiles and the risk that Tehran could now pursue a nuclear programme in secret.

"There's consensus on the fact that the material -- the 450 kilogrammes (990 pounds) of enriched uranium -- maybe a small part was destroyed, but that material remains in the hands of the regime," he said.

Iran, which denies pursuing nuclear weapons, has suspended cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog since the strikes.

Iran-US were close to breakthrough before Israel war, FM says

Iran remains interested in diplomacy, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on Tuesday, adding that he and U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy had been "on the cusp of a historic breakthrough" before the Israel-Iran war.

The comments, contained in an article written by Araghchi and published in the Financial Times newspaper, offered praise for Trump's earlier negotiating efforts in a further indication that talks over Iran's nuclear program may soon restart.

"In only five meetings over nine weeks, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and I achieved more than I did in four years of nuclear negotiations with the failed Biden administration. We were on the cusp of a historic breakthrough," he wrote.

Araqchi said they were 48 hours from a pivotal sixth meeting when Israel launched airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities and ballistic missiles on June 13.

Araqchi acknowledged having received messages indicating Washington may be ready to return to negotiations. He noted the U.S. was one of six countries to sign a comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran in 2015, only to withdraw in 2018 under the first Trump presidency.

"Iran remains interested in diplomacy but we have good reason to have doubts about further dialogue. If there is a desire to resolve this amicably, the U.S. should show genuine readiness for an equitable accord," Araqchi wrote.