Key question remains on where Iran is keeping highly enriched uranium - former IAEA senior leader

 Key question remains on where Iran is keeping highly enriched uranium - former IAEA senior leader

The former deputy director-general for safeguards at the International Atomic Energy Agency says we don't know exactly where things stand inside Iran's nuclear programme following Israel's attacks.

Olli Heinonen says Israel has likely done significant damage to Tehran's nuclear capacity. The facility in Natanz "will take at least years to recover", he tells Radio 4's Today programme.

"I think [the Fordow plant] is the same. It's in a very bad shape after these bombings."

But the key question remains, Heinonen says, about where Iran is keeping its stockpile of "more than 400 kilograms" of highly enriched uranium.

"If they have a secret site, which doesn't need to be very big... and they can enrich to weapons-grade [uranium] secretly without IAEA being present, then we have a big problem on our hands."

Tehran residents will 'pay the price', says Israeli defence minister

Israel's defence minister has warned that Tehran's residents will "pay the price" for Iranian attacks on Israeli citizens after overnight strikes killed five people and injured dozens.

Israel Katz accused Iran's leader Ali Khamenei of deliberately targeting civilian areas "to deter the IDF from continuing the attack that is collapsing his capabilities".

Katz called Khamenei a "cowardly murderer" and a "boastful dictator". He said Israel would retaliate "soon".