Iran says IAEA must clarify stance on Israeli strikes before visiting bombed nuclear sites

The UN nuclear watchdog must clarify its stance on US and Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites last June before inspectors are allowed to visit those facilities, Iranian media quotes the country’s atomic chief as saying.

Mohammad Eslami says the inspections so far have been limited to undamaged sites, and he criticizes the watchdog for letting Israeli and US pressure influence its actions.

Eslami makes his comments in response to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, who said on Tuesday that the standoff over inspections “cannot go on forever.”

Grossi has not explicitly condemned or criticized the attacks, nor has he formally outlined a protocol for inspecting the damaged facilities.

Access to sites that were attacked needs “a specific protocol,” Eslami says, adding: “When a military strike occurs and there are environmental risks, it must be defined and a guideline must be designed.”

“The agency has to clarify its position regarding the military attacks on the nuclear facilities that have been registered by the agency and are under its supervision so we can understand what role they play,” state TV quotes Eslami as having told reporters in Tehran on Thursday.

He says Tehran had submitted a statement at the IAEA’s General Conference last September demanding that attacks on nuclear sites be prohibited. But it was not placed on the agenda and was ignored, he says.

“It is unrealistic, unprofessional and unfair that, because of pressure from Israel and the US, he [Grossi] is putting pressure on us,” Eslami says.

Grossi told Reuters on Tuesday that the IAEA had inspected all 13 declared nuclear facilities in Iran that were not targeted last June but had been unable to inspect any of the three key sites that were bombed — Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan.