Two US senators urge continued pressure to block Iran’s nuclear path

Details released Saturday night -- despite tight security censorship in Israel over last month’s conflict with Iran -- revealed that in January, the military intelligence team issued an early warning following advances in Iran’s weapons program.

"The nuclear team in the Control Department issues a concrete warning about the launch of a coordinated project to produce the final stage required for launching a nuclear missile in Iran," it said.

Around the same time, the research division of Israel’s military intelligence also issued a warning, identifying a covert team of Iranian nuclear scientists allegedly working on previously undeveloped components needed to complete the final stage of a nuclear missile launch.

The head of military intelligence, Shlomi Binder, established a special team with several tech experts with an emphasis on nuclear weapons to plan the attacks on Iran's nuclear infrastructure. They also focused on how to do simultaneous assassinations of the country's military and nuclear chiefs.

In May, Binder issued his own warning to the political echelon: "I would like to alert decision-makers to disturbing developments in the field of nuclear weapons in Iran. It appears that Iran is continuing to make determined progress that is shortening the technological and cognitive distance required to complete the development of a nuclear weapons device.”

On June 13, Israel launched a series of surprise attacks which led to the deaths of around 30 military commanders and nuclear scientists and a 12-day war which caused widespread destruction to both sides.

As the fragile ceasefire holds by a thread, the United States is now awaiting Iran’s return to the negotiating table for a new nuclear agreement. Both Washington and Tel Aviv have warned that failure to reach a deal could trigger further military strikes.

“Nothing was accessible. Nothing was visible,” wrote Hamidreza Amouzegar, deputy head of product development at the software firm Dotin, in a LinkedIn post recounting the June 17 breach.

“We tried the backup site—same story there.”

The internet banking, mobile banking, and ATMs of the two banks remained largely non-functional until recently.

Dotin, a major provider of digital systems to Iranian banks, found itself at the center of the crisis.

“Sepah Bank’s primary data center had gone dark, with monitoring dashboards frozen and all stored data apparently corrupted,” he added.

When engineers attempted to switch over to the disaster recovery site, they found that it too had failed, with matching damage reported.

“At that point, the priority was no longer identifying the culprit or mapping the technical details,” Amouzegar wrote. “It was about getting public banking services back online—fast.”

To that end, he wrote, teams turned to Samsonite, a portable data center in a suitcase developed by Dotin following service disruptions in 2022. The system was designed to provide core banking functions—particularly card transactions—for short periods without reliance on the main network.

Nobitex, Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, had also confirmed cyberattacks against its systems during the war.

The pro-Israel hacker group Predatory Sparrow, known for prior cyberattacks on Iran’s fuel infrastructure, claimed responsibility for "paralyzing" Sepah Bank and draining more than $90 million from Nobitex.

Sepah Bank is responsible for processing the payments of military personnel.

Pasargad Bank had already deployed Samsonite, allowing it to restore limited services by the early hours of June 19. Sepah, which had not yet installed the system, remained offline longer, Amouzegar added.

Basic card functionality there was only restored by June 20 after a full system rebuild from partial offline backups, he wrote.

“For a bank processing over a billion transactions monthly, losing just one day meant more than 30 million transactions vanished,” Amouzegar said.

Sepah’s full recovery took until June 27, during which time Samsonite processed more than 60 million transactions.

“The cyber war ended three days after the ceasefire,” he added. “But recovery will take months. What I’ve shared here is only a fragment of the story.”

Speaking on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting, Abbas Araghchi said Iran remains open to a negotiated deal but only if the US “puts aside military ambitions” and compensates for past actions.

“There is no military option to deal with Iran’s nuclear program,” he told CGTN. “There should be only a diplomatic solution.”

He added that Iran is ready to re-engage in talks, but only “when they put aside their military ambitions.”

No clear path back to negotiations

Iranian officials say any future negotiations will require what they describe as fair and balanced terms. Araghchi reiterated that Tehran is willing to share evidence of the peaceful nature of its nuclear program but warned that “real intention” is needed from the other side.

“There should also be a real intention for a win-win solution,” he said. “Our nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, and we are 100% confident in that.”

“We have no problem to share this confidence with anybody else,” he added. “That can happen only through negotiation.”

The comments follow a warning by European powers that UN sanctions could return if Iran does not rejoin negotiations by late August. Tehran has rejected those calls, insisting Washington was the first to walk away from the 2015 nuclear deal and escalate with military action this year.

Iran’s position has hardened in recent weeks, with officials demanding firm guarantees before any new round of talks. Araghchi reiterated that Iran was committed to the original deal and blamed the current crisis on the US withdrawal.

“Everything we saw today is the result of that withdrawal,” he said, referring to the Trump administration’s 2018 exit from the nuclear agreement. “We remain committed to that [deal],” he said, recalling that the original accord was once “celebrated… as an achievement of diplomacy.”

Iran calls Israel ceasefire fragile

Asked about last month's war with Israel, Araghchi said the ceasefire that ended the fighting remains fragile. He added Iran is prepared to respond if it collapses, though it is not seeking further confrontation.

“We didn’t want this war,” he said. “But we were prepared for that.”

European countries this week mooted reviving United Nations sanctions on Iran if it doesn't resume talks on its nuclear program, in what could be a harsh blow to the country's already ailing economy.

“The hostile posture of the three European powers and the cautious approach of China and Russia—Iran’s tactical partners—have made a return to diplomacy increasingly unlikely,” wrote Etemad columnist Noushin Mahjoub in her July 17 column.

Mahjoub dismissed Beijing’s role as a potential mediator, arguing that Tehran’s own actions—halting cooperation with the IAEA and clinging to hardline red lines—have left diplomacy with “few prospects.”

Former parliamentary foreign relations chief Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh echoed that view.

“The activation of the trigger mechanism means an end to diplomatic relations between Iran and Europe,” he told the moderate daily Etemad. “And countries like China and Russia, facing their own tensions with the US, cannot be effective mediators.”

He pointed to their passivity during the recent 12-day war with Israel and proposed Oman or Qatar as more realistic options—if Iran recommits to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Searching for way out

But with US officials insisting that only direct engagement is acceptable, the question of mediation may already be obsolete.

Iran’s path out of the current crisis likely hinges not on finding the right go-between, but on its own willingness to fundamentally shift course.

Political analyst Hassan Beheshtipour offered a possible framework, arguing that Tehran needs to embrace a strategy that balances deterrence, confidence-building and responsiveness to major powers.

“Iran’s situation has grown more precarious following accusations by three European states that it undermined nuclear safeguards,” he wrote in the moderate daily Arman Melli, calling for a phased “suspension-for-suspension” model.

“Iran would pause enrichment for one year, while the other side progressively lifts sanctions and releases frozen assets. Afterward, Iran would cap enrichment at 67.3%, while retaining technical capability for higher levels,” Beheshtipour proposed.

Iran remains the only non-nuclear state enriching uranium to 60%—a level close to weapons-grade. But Washington appears adamant that no enrichment is acceptable inside Iran.

Window closing

Tehran is left at a familiar but increasingly perilous crossroads.

The Islamic Republic must either relinquish its revolutionary doctrine to avoid punishing sanctions—or brace for deeper isolation that even China and Russia won’t be able to counterbalance.

Abandoning its ideological identity would transform the ruling system beyond recognition. But choosing resistance without compromise would come at a steep cost: greater hardship for ordinary Iranians and a further erosion of state legitimacy.

Tehran’s long-favored third option—stalling, hedging and tactical ambiguity—may no longer be sustainable. The economy may be too fragile, global patience too thin.

Leader’s defiance

President Pezeshkian’s proposed workaround—reviving barter trade with select neighbors—offers little in the way of real relief. It is a dated, impractical system unlikely to serve any party’s long-term interests.

Yet Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei shows no sign of blinking. This week, he reiterated that Iran is prepared for military and diplomatic action but provided no endorsement of diplomacy with adversaries.

Mistrust runs deep, and Khamenei loyalists miss no opportunity to amplify it.

“Decades of experience and US arrogance, aided by its lackey Israel, show that they want to bring misery upon us and erase our glorious history,” former vice president and hardliner Masoud Zaribafan told Khabar Online.

"The more we report and the more we see, the more we understand how devastating those attacks were on all three of those nuclear sites," Hegseth told Pentagon pool reporters on Friday.

US attacks on June 22 hit Iran's nuclear sites of Fordow, Esfahan and Natanz.

Hegseth's remarks come after a report by NBC News on Thursday citing current and former US officials saying just one of the three nuclear facilities struck by the US in Iran last month has been destroyed.

That assessment, which showed that Fordow was set back as long as two years, was briefed to US lawmakers, Defense Department officials and allied countries in recent days.

An initial Pentagon assessment suggested the attacks had only set Iran's nuclear program back by months, but subsequent analysis released by the Central Intelligence Agency said it would take Tehran years to recover.

Trump on Wednesday said Iran's nuclear program had been dealt an irreparable blow by the US attacks and that he was in no rush to resume negotiations with Tehran despite its alleged eagerness.