Iran War Updates: Iran vows not to part with "single particle of enriched nuclear material" as standoff continues

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused the U.S. on Wednesday of threatening to attack his country with America's largest non-nuclear weapon — the "mother of all bombs" — while claiming to seek a diplomatic resolution to the war.

In a post on X, Pezeshkian criticized the U.S. for what he called an effort to "pursue diplomacy through threats."

"No contradiction but a disgrace. Who threatens global peace and security?" he wrote.

CBS News reported in October that the White House and Pentagon had prepared plans to use the Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, or MOAB — an acronym that has earned it the nickname used by Pezeshkian — to hit military sites in Iran if President Trump were to give the order, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The MOAB is the largest non-nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal, weighing upwards of 30,000 pounds. Mr. Trump set a precedent for its use in 2017, when it was deployed to attack an ISIS cave complex in Afghanistan. It is designed to destroy infrastructure buried deep underground.

An adviser to Iran's supreme leader said Wednesday that the U.S. and Europe "have heard the repercussions" of the war launched jointly more than eight months ago by the U.S. and Israel.

In a post on X, Mohammad Mokhber said other nations' participation in the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports constituted an act of war that would be recorded "in the nation's historical memory."

"Responsibility and the consequences of such actions will extend to all participants, regardless of geographical boundaries," Mokhber said.

He did not mention any specific repercussions, but France has blamed Iran for nationwide cyberattacks that hit commercial refrigeration units at hundreds of grocery stores in October, spoiling thousands of tons of food and causing at least 20 fires, according to French prosecutors. 

In September, U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Iran was believed to have "played a part" in a security incident near an air base in England that had been used by U.S. forces to launch strikes on Iran.

Iran-linked groups have also been accused of backing a series of sabotage attacks in the U.K. and Europe, including many targeting Jewish communities.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Wednesday that two more oil tankers had struck sea mines and caught on fire in the Strait of Hormuz, the latest of what have become daily claims by Iranian forces about attacks on commercial vessels in and around the strategic waterway.

"Two oil tankers that attempted to secretly leave the Strait of Hormuz last night via an unauthorized and hazardous route, under the protection of fighter jets belonging to the plundering and aggressor U.S. military, struck naval mines and sustained massive explosions," the IRGC said in a statement.

Iran has attacked ships for months that it accuses of trying to transit the waterway without its approval, using southern shipping lanes the U.S. military insists are safe and open. The U.S. military, meanwhile, has also struck tankers it accuses of violating its blockade of Iranian ports.

The IRGC claimed Tuesday that at least two oil tankers had caught on fire after explosions in the strait under similar circumstances, and the U.K. navy's Maritime Trade Operations center said a tanker reported being hit by a projectile in the strait on Tuesday evening. 

The U.S.-Iran war will cost Gulf countries more than $200 billion in damage and economic losses could reach nearly four times that amount by 2030, insurer Allianz Trade said on Wednesday.

Gulf countries which hosted U.S. forces came under attack on a daily basis in the opening weeks of the war as Iran retaliated against U.S. and Israeli attacks.

"Physical damage across the region is assessed just above $200bn, mostly concentrated in Hormuz-locked economies, especially in energy infrastructure," the insurer said in a report.

More than 80 energy facilities were hit in the war, mostly in Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, the report said, with a third of them "severely damaged."

Beyond physical damage to energy infrastructure, the war has affected other sectors like tourism and real estate, which will see slower growth over the years.

"The total cost of the war for the GCC is set to reach $790bn, a cumulative gap of 5.9 percent of GDP relative to the pre-war trend through 2030," the report said.

"This reflects the cumulative loss of economic output over 2026-30, the difference between what the region was forecast to produce on its pre-war growth trend and what it is now projected to produce post-war," it said.

CBS/AFP

A top Iranian security official insisted Wednesday that Tehran will not allow the removal of any of its enriched nuclear material.

Iranian state broadcaster IRIB cited Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei as saying Tehran "will not remove even a single particle of enriched nuclear material from the country."

The White House has argued the war against Iran was necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining a nuclear weapon, which the regime has always denied trying to do. 

The Trump administration has pushed for a final peace deal that would include Iran agreeing to give up its stockpile of highly-enriched uranium and accept limits on its nuclear program overall. 

The U.S. wants an initial ceasefire deal to include negotiations on the nuclear issue, but Tehran has refused that precondition, insisting such discussions can only take place once fighting is formally halted - on all fronts, including in Lebanon.

On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reiterated the White House's position on Iran's nuclear program, telling reporters that "crazy Islamists in Tehran will never ever have a nuclear weapon."

Hours after the Iranian foreign ministry officially rejected any responsibility for grocery store refrigerators being hacked across the country, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi added insult to injury.

"Unable to manage fridges let alone addressing grievances of its people, French government is shifting blame for its failures onto others," Araghchi wrote on X.

Araghchi also added Iran did not use its power to support "massacres in Gaza or bombings of schools and hospitals."

On Monday, the Paris Prosecutor's Office said investigators had evidence Iran was behind the Oct. 11 hack, which significantly turned up the temperature in refrigerators and spoiled tons of food as well as causing about 20 fires. About 700 supermarkets across the country were targeted, the prosecutor's office said.

The Iranian foreign ministry, in its official statement Tuesday, said it "strongly rejects the baseless accusations made by the French government against Iran concerning alleged involvement in sabotage activities in France."