UN watchdog chief warns room to maneuver on Iran’s nuclear program is shrinking
IAEA’s Rafael Grossi urges ‘diplomatic solutions,’ as Israel suggests Iranian nuclear sites could be targeted, and Iran-hawk Donald Trump prepares for his return to the White House
The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog warned Tuesday that “the margins for maneuver are beginning to shrink” on Iran’s nuclear program ahead of an important trip to Tehran.
The comments came in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory in the United States earlier this month, and of Israeli airstrikes in Iran in October that hit the country’s air defenses among other targets, and which Israeli officials have noted would leave Iran’s nuclear sites more vulnerable to a future Israeli attack.
“The Iranian administration must understand that the international situation is becoming increasingly tense and that the margins to maneuver are beginning to shrink, and that it is imperative to find ways to reach diplomatic solutions,” Rafael Grossi, director-general of the UN watchdog, told AFP in an interview at the COP29 climate summit in Baku.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is allowed to carry out inspections in Iran, he said, but “we need to see more. Given the size, depth and ambition of Iran’s program, we need to find ways of giving the agency more visibility.”
His visit comes after Trump — who pulled out of a nuclear deal with Iran negotiated under Barack Obama — was voted back into the White House.
“I already worked with the first Trump administration and we worked well together,” the IAEA chief said.
To the dismay of many of its allies, Washington pulled out of the 2015 agreement, which was supposed to dismantle much of Iran’s nuclear program and open it up to greater inspection in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, in 2018.
All attempts to revive the defunct Obama-era deal — signed with the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — have failed. Grossi admitted Tuesday, “It’s an empty shell.”
The Trump administration replaced the accord with a “maximum pressure” policy of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, which the US president-elect is reportedly planning to renew upon his return to office.
In recent years, the Iranian nuclear program has continued to expand, even as Tehran denies it has, or is pursuing, a nuclear bomb.
The Islamic Republic has greatly increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 percent, according to the IAEA, close to the 90 percent needed to make an atomic weapon.
Since new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian took office in August, Tehran has indicated that it would be open to talks to resurrect the agreement.
Grossi’s last visit to Iran was in May when he went to Isfahan province, home to the Natanz uranium enrichment plant.
He then urged Iran’s leaders to adopt “concrete” measures to address concerns over its nuclear program and to increase cooperation with inspectors.
Defensive tunnel in Tehran
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency also reported Tuesday that the country is building a “defensive tunnel” in capital Tehran, following Israeli airstrikes in the country last month in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel.
The tunnel, located near the city center, will link a station on the Tehran metro to the Imam Khomeini hospital, thus allowing direct underground access to the medical facility.
“For the first time in the country, a tunnel with defensive applications is being built in Tehran,” the head of transport for Tehran City Council told Tasnim.
The report came after dozens of Israeli aircraft last month targeted strategic military sites across Iran — specifically drone and ballistic missile manufacturing and launch sites, as well as air defense batteries — in response to Iran’s firing 181 ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1.
The Israeli strikes did not target Iran’s nuclear sites, but officials have hinted they may still be struck in the future.
“Iran today is more exposed than ever to damage to its nuclear facilities. There is a chance of achieving the most important goal, to thwart and remove the threat of annihilation from hanging over the State of Israel,” said newly appointed Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday.
Earlier Monday, Gideon Sa’ar, who replaced Katz as foreign minister last week, said that “the most important question by far, for the future of this region, for the security of the State of Israel, is to avoid Iran getting a nuclear weapon.”
He said the issue has been the most important topic of discussion between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump.
Iran is committed to the destruction of Israel, and funds several proxy terror groups that are at war with the Jewish state, including Hamas, which launched a deadly cross-border assault on Israel from the Gaza Strip last year, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, starting the ongoing war.
The Islamic Republic also funds Hezbollah in Lebanon, which Israel is currently battling after more than a year of the group’s daily rocket and drone attacks. It also funds the Houthis in Yemen, and militias in Iraq and Syria.
