UN nuclear watchdog chief warns of ‘violence and destruction’ without diplomacy

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi tells an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that the US attacks on three Iranian nuclear sites threaten a widening of the Israel-Iran conflict, but also offer a return to diplomacy.

“If that window closes, violence and destruction could reach unthinkable levels, and the global nonproliferation regime as we know it could crumble and fall,” the International Atomic Energy Agency director general says.

Grossi urges a return to diplomacy, and for Iran to allow IAEA inspectors to go back to its nuclear sites to account, most importantly, for the 4,400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent.

He says IAEA inspectors are in Iran, but they need a cessation of hostilities to go to nuclear sites, assess damage, and protect nuclear materials and equipment.

Grossi also tells the meeting that craters are visible at the Fordo site, indicating the US use of ground-penetrating munitions, but the underground damage cannot be assessed yet.

At the Isfahan site, he says, additional buildings were hit, some related to converting uranium, and “entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit.”

At the Natanz nuclear enrichment site, Grossi says the fuel enrichment plant has been hit again.

“At this time, no one, including the IAEA, is in a position to assess the underground damage at Fordo,” Grossi says.

UN Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenca tells the council that Iranian state media reported that the three sites had been evacuated and that the highly enriched uranium stockpile was transferred in advance of the US strikes.