White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday the Trump administration has a “high degree of confidence” that its strikes against Iran hit locations where enriched uranium was being stored amid questions about whether officials in Tehran had relocated the nation’s stockpile.

“We are confident, yes, that Iran’s nuclear sites were completely and totally obliterated, as the president said in his address to the nation on Saturday night,” Leavitt said on ABC.

“And we have a high degree of confidence that where those strikes took place is where Iran’s enriched uranium was stored,” she added. “The president wouldn’t have launched the strikes if we weren’t confident in that. So this operation was a resounding success.”

The U.S. on Saturday struck three Iranian nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. President Trump described them in an address to the nation as “completely and totally obliterated,” something he reiterated in a social media post late Sunday.

But experts have acknowledged it would take time to determine the extent of the damage from U.S. strikes, and some reports raised the possibility that Iran moved some of its enriched uranium away from those sites ahead of the attack.

“Final battle damage will take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said Sunday.

The New York Times reported there was evidence Iran had moved equipment and uranium from the Fordow site in recent days, citing two Israeli officials. The Times also cited text messages from the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency indicating Iran had moved its uranium stockpile.

Trump administration officials have maintained that the purpose of the strikes was to decimate Iran’s nuclear program and severely curtail Tehran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon.

“We’re not at war with Iran. We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” Vice President Vance said.

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Where is Iran's uranium? Questions abound after US strikes

After President Donald Trump bragged US strikes had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear capabilities, officials cautioned it was still too soon to assess the impact on the country's nuclear programme.

Many questions remain after Sunday's strikes, especially about the whereabouts of Iran's sensitive stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 percent -- a short step from the 90 percent required for a nuclear weapon.

- Where is Iran's enriched uranium? -

The US attacks, carried out by B-2 stealth bombers, targeted three Iranian nuclear sites: Isfahan and Iran's main enrichment plants in Fordo and Natanz.

While significant damage has been reported, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has voiced concern about Iran's stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium.

Tehran has an estimated 408.6 kilogrammes of uranium enriched to 60 percent, according to the UN nuclear watchdog, whose inspectors last saw that stockpile on June 10.

That material, if further refined, would theoretically be sufficient to produce more than nine nuclear bombs.

IAEA head Rafael Grossi on Monday demanded access to Iran's nuclear sites, saying the agency needs to "account for" the uranium stockpile.

Concerns about the fate of the sensitive stockpile have loomed large. On June 13, the day Israel began its Iran offensive, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi sent a letter to the IAEA, announcing the implementation of "special measures to protect nuclear equipment and material".

Days before the US attacked, satellite imagery showed vehicles near Fordo's entrance.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had "interesting intelligence" on the matter, declining to elaborate.

Israel announced Monday it had carried out strikes to block access routes to Fordo.

"It will be difficult if not impossible to track down all of Iran's 60 percent enriched uranium, stored in small canisters that are easily transportable by car," Kelsey Davenport, an expert with the Arms Control Association, told AFP.

"They (Iranians) no longer have the capacity to turn that stockpile of highly enriched uranium to weapons-grade uranium, and that was really the goal there," US Vice President JD Vance told ABC News.

He added the Trump administration would deal with the uranium "in the coming weeks".

- Can Iran still make a nuclear bomb? -

Analysts have been treading carefully when addressing this issue.

Before the attacks, Iran had about 22,000 centrifuges -- the machines used to enrich uranium. Many of them were damaged when Natanz was hit, the IAEA head said.

Grossi also said "very significant damage" is expected to have occurred at Fordo, "given the explosive payload utilised and the extreme vibration-sensitive nature of centrifuges".

Experts however say that it is unclear how many centrifuges Iran has, with some of them believed to be stored at unknown locations.

With "60 percent enriched uranium and a few hundred advanced centrifuges, Iran still has the capability to weaponise, and now there is more political impetus to dash for a bomb", said Davenport.

- What are the proliferation risks? -

Before the conflict, the IAEA said it had "no indication" of the existence of a "systematic programme" in Iran to produce a nuclear weapon. But without access to nuclear sites, the agency no longer has oversight.

Grossi warned Monday that the "global non-proliferation regime that has underpinned international security... could crumble and fall", urging parties to return to diplomacy.

Iran ratified the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) in 1970, committing it to declare its nuclear material to the IAEA. But it has recently begun preparing the grounds for a possible withdrawal from the treaty, accusing the agency of acting as a "partner" in Israel's "war of aggression".

Reza Najafi, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, said Monday the "unlawful act of aggression" by the United States had "delivered a fundamental and irreparable blow" to the non-proliferation regime.

"I do think there is a major risk that Iran withdraws from the NPT and expels inspectors, or simply does not provide them with access to key sites," said Eric Brewer of the US research institute Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI).

He added that Iran could also "over time, build (a) covert" programme like North Korea, which withdrew from the NPT in 2003 and went on to become a nuclear-armed power.

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IAEA says entrances to tunnels at Iran's Isfahan site hit by US strike

Entrances to tunnels used to store part of Iran's enriched uranium stockpile at the sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex were hit in U.S. military strikes overnight, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Sunday.

"We have established that entrances to underground tunnels at the site were impacted," the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement.

Officials have previously said much of Iran's most highly enriched uranium was stored underground at Isfahan.

In a statement to the U.N. Security Council soon after the IAEA statement was issued, the agency's chief Rafael Grossi appeared to confirm the tunnels hit were part of the area used for the storage of that stockpile.

"Entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit," he said, referring to Isfahan.

Iranian officials have said measures would be taken to protect the country's nuclear material without informing the IAEA. Grossi said Iran could do that in a way that respects its so-called safeguards obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"Any special measures by Iran to protect its nuclear materials and equipment can be done in accordance with Iran’s safeguards obligations and the agency. This is possible," Grossi told the Security Council.

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David Lammy refuses to say if UK supported US strikes on Iran nuclear facilities

The UK foreign secretary has repeatedly refused to say if the UK supported the US military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities on Saturday or whether they were legal.

Interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday for the first time since the US launched airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, David Lammy also sidestepped the question of whether he supported recent social media posts by Donald Trump that seemed to favour regime change in Tehran, saying that in all his discussions in the White House the sole focus had been on military targets.

Lammy said western allies were waiting for battlefield assessments of the impact of the strikes, but it was possible Iran still had a stockpile of highly enriched uranium, although the strikes “may also have set back Iran’s nuclear programme by several years”.

Ever since the US strikes, senior figures in the Labour government have tried to make their criticism of the action only implicit rather than explicit.

Lammy tried to focus on urging Iran to return to the negotiating table, insisting that Iran was in breach of its obligations by enriching uranium at levels of purity as high as 60%.

The UK Foreign Office has denied Iranian reports that in a phone call on Sunday with the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, Lammy had expressed regret about the US strikes.

Asked if the airstrikes were legal, Lammy said three times it was for Washington to answer such questions.

But in the course of a 15-minute interview on BBC Radio 4, he at no point backed the US airstrikes, saying he was not going to get into the issues of whether they conformed with either article 2 or article 51 of the UN charter, clauses that permit military action in self-defence.

Saying “there is still an off-ramp for the Iranians”, he admitted discussions with Iran involving France, Germany and the UK last Friday in Geneva had been “very tough”.

He said: “Everyone is urging the Iranians to get serious about the negotiations with the E3 and the US.” Iran is currently refusing to talk to the US or Israel while it is under military attack.

Lammy said he still believed Iran was engaging in “deception and obfuscation” about its nuclear programme, but added “yes, they [the Iranians] can have a civil nuclear capability that is properly monitored that involves outsiders but they cannot continue to enrich to 60 %”.

His remarks left open whether the UK supported the US negotiating position of insisting on zero uranium enrichment inside the country, or whether he was prepared to accept that Iran could enrich to 3.67% level of purity, the maximum allowed in the Iran nuclear deal signed in 2015 and from which the UK, unlike the US, has not withdrawn.

He also refused to say if he agreed with the latest US intelligence assessment that Iran was close to securing a nuclear weapon, saying instead he relied on the report from the UN nuclear inspectorate, the International Atomic Energy Agency. In its latest reporting, the IAEA said it had no evidence that Iran was seeking a nuclear bomb.

He said: “You can only deal with the Iranian nuclear programme diplomatically. If Iran is able to enrich beyond 60%, is able to get a weapon, what we will see is nuclear proliferation across the Middle East.”

Asked about Trump’s references to regime change he said: “I recognise there is a discussion about regime change but that is not what is under consideration at this time. The rhetoric is strong but I can tell you, having spoken to the secretary of state, having sat in the White House, that this targeted action is to deal with Iran’s nuclear capability.”

When pressed to comment on a claim by Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister, that by “being blind” on the issue of the legality of the US’s action, European leaders undermined their position on Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Lammy insisted there was no moral equivalence between the Russian invasion of a sovereign country and the actions the US had taken in Iran.

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The IAEA is still looking for Iran's highly enriched uranium stockpile. Iran says it was moved to an undisclosed location. Inspectors can't really look for the material now because of Israel's ongoing military assaults. The inventory is enough to make 10 nuclear warheads.