IAEA chief Grossi agrees with cooperation in Iran – and despises Israel.
Tehran/Vienna. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran want to work together again. The UN agency agreed to monitor nuclear facilities more closely with Tehran after IAEA chief Rafael Grossi held talks with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran.
Iran has gone ahead with enriching uranium to the very high level of 60% purity. This fueled concerns that this material could be processed for nuclear weapons. This would only require a slightly higher grade of 90 percent. In addition, IAEA specialists found traces of uranium with a purity of 84% at the Fordow nuclear power plant. Since then, the IAEA has tried to clarify whether Iran deliberately reached that level or whether it was an unintended, short-term peak, as Iran has argued.
Israel attack would be ‘illegal’
Last year, IAEA experts had to dismantle cameras and other surveillance equipment in Iran. Now they should be working again soon. Tehran also allows inspectors to visit Fordow more frequently, Grossi said. Details still need to be clarified, but the mood is “cooperative”. Tehran made the concessions shortly before Monday’s meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors.
On the sidelines of the visit to Iran, there was a scandal with Israel: Grossi said that an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would be “illegal”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu angrily insisted on Israel’s right to defend itself: “Can Iran, which demands our destruction, defend the destructive weapons that would kill us?”
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