‘A huge question’: IAEA chief alarmed by Iran’s talk of developing nuclear weapons
Rafael Grossi says of Tehran’s potential plans, ‘We are moving closer to a situation where there is a big huge question mark about what they are doing and why they are doing it’
International Atomic Energy Authority chief Rafael Grossi said Tuesday he was extremely worried about recent comments from Iranian officials threatening to develop nuclear weapons and about their lack of cooperation with UN inspectors.
Grossi made his comments following a meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron on Tuesday.
Speaking with the UK’s Guardian newspaper, Grossi said, “Loose talk about nuclear weapons is extremely serious for me. And I think it should stop. We are moving closer to a situation where there is a big, huge question mark about what they are doing and why they are doing it.”
He added that the status of the agreement with Iran on inspecting its civil nuclear program is “in a very tight spot.”
Iran has threatened to move toward manufacturing nuclear weapons in the wake of its ongoing tensions with Israel.
On May 8, Iran’s Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was reported as saying by Iran’s Student News Network, “We have no decision to build a nuclear bomb, but should Iran’s existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine.”
Tehran has always insisted its nuclear program was strictly for peaceful purposes, a claim Israel and much of the Western world dismiss.
The Guardian also reported that people close to Khamenei said he called for the UN weapons inspectors to be thrown out of Iran.
Grossi said he was not trying to create a new agreement to replace the one signed with Iran in March 2023 but rather to get a better understanding of what inspectors will be allowed to see before the IAEA board of governors meets again in June.
Following his visit to Tehran and Isfahan last week, Grossi decried what he called “completely unsatisfactory” cooperation from Tehran.
He told The Guardian Tuesday, “There was a period when we were recording information and storing this information but could not access it. But there is another period in which there was nothing. I have been saying that…without us being able to have capacity to see and to see more in Iran, my ability to guarantee that everything is for peaceful uses in Iran would be limited and perhaps approaching the moment where I would not be able to say that anymore.”
He also said there would be a point where he would “draw the line” with Iran, saying, “It would be a very critical juncture because the international community would have to grapple with the reality that we don’t know what Iran may or may not have and the countries will draw their conclusions.”
Grossi said in February that Iran continued to enrich uranium up to 60 percent purity, which is far beyond the needs for commercial nuclear use and is a short technical step away from weapons-grade 90%.
Iran suspended compliance with a landmark 2015 deal setting caps on nuclear activities after the United States, under former president Donald Trump, unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions.
Tensions between Iran and the IAEA have repeatedly flared since the deal fell apart, and European Union-mediated efforts have so far failed to bring Washington back on board and to get Tehran to again comply with the terms of the accord.
The agency has repeatedly criticized Iran for a lack of cooperation on issues including the expansion of its nuclear work, the barring of inspectors, and the deactivation of the agency’s monitoring devices at its nuclear facilities.
In a report presented at its last board of governors meeting in March, the IAEA said that Iran’s estimated stockpile of enriched uranium had reached 27 times the limit set out in the 2015 accord.
