Iranian state media reported that Ghaempanah, who serves as executive vice president to President Masoud Pezeshkian, questioned the pursuit of nuclear enrichment in light of its ultimate price. He argued that Iran must weigh the costs of its objectives against the possibility of achieving them through less expensive avenues. The vice president specifically asked why industries, roads, refineries and electricity installations should face strikes that could drive up unemployment and intensify pressure on the national economy.
Ghaempanah stressed that no goal should carry a higher cost than the loss of the country’s leadership. «If it were me, and I knew America would martyr our leader, I would have stopped enrichment,» he said according to the state media. «What cost could be higher than the martyrdom of the Supreme Leader?» the vice president asked, adding «We are not all supposed to become martyrs. Iran is supposed to remain.»
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei died during joint US-Israeli airstrikes on February 28, multiple outlets including the South China Morning Post have reported. His son Mojtaba Khamenei assumed the position, and US intelligence assessments reported by The New York Times on July 25 concluded that the new leader is far more open to acquiring nuclear weapons than his predecessor had been. Peripheral regime figures have increasingly voiced support for weaponization in public discourse, an Institute for the Study of War update from August 27 noted, though these voices do not set official nuclear policy.
The International Atomic Energy Agency estimated that Iran held 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent prior to the outbreak of conflict, according to a Reuters dispatch from May that cited IAEA data. Much of that stockpile is believed to survive in fortified underground sites that were targeted in subsequent strikes. Iran’s nuclear chief rejected any external limits on enrichment activities in early August, describing such demands as unrealistic wishes from adversaries, the Times of Israel reported.
Civilian infrastructure losses from the fighting have reached between $270 billion and $300 billion, a National Iranian American Council assessment found, while the economy contracted by 6.1 percent this year with inflation nearing 70 percent. Transportation networks absorbed repeated hits to bridges, tunnels and rail lines across multiple provinces, yet many were restored within hours using prefabricated components and bypass routes, the council’s analysis detailed. Education authorities have repaired 775 of 1,300 damaged schools, according to statements from the education minister cited in the same report.
Strikes on the electricity network produced a 4,200-megawatt loss in capacity and harmed more than 2,000 distribution points, the national electricity company told Al Jazeera in July. Major industrial consumers including steel plants in Isfahan and Khuzestan ceased drawing power after being hit, converting former surplus generators into additional drains on the grid. These disruptions have combined with seasonal heatwaves to produce rolling blackouts across the country, the network operator confirmed.
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