IAEA chief: Iran nuclear deal with tough monitoring will prevent Israeli attack - Yonah Jeremy Bob

 

by Yonah Jeremy Bob

Rafael Grossi: The IAEA found man-made uranium particles at three undeclared locations – Varamin, Marivan, and Turquzabad.

 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi seen at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 9, 2025

(photo credit: REUTERS/LISA LEUTNER) 

Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, on Monday, said that he hopes that his efforts and the efforts of the US will lead to a new nuclear deal with tough monitoring of Iran’s nuclear program sufficient to mollify Israel from feeling the need to attack the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities.

Grossi was referring to escalating threats by Jerusalem since October 26, 2024, of a readiness to strike Tehran’s nuclear facilities.

On that date, Israel retaliated against a second mass direct strike by Iran against the Jewish state (which caused no casualties due to immense missile defense efforts by Israel, the US, and several allied countries) by destroying all of Iran’s advanced S-300 anti-aircraft defense systems, leaving the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites largely undefended compared to Israel’s F-35 air strike capabilities.

The IAEA chief’s comments at a press conference on Monday were an expression of his hope that if a new nuclear deal has even better monitoring provisions than the 2015 version, maybe Jerusalem will decide that it is unnecessary to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Earlier, Grossi spoke to the IAEA Board of Governors, telling them that he had concluded that Tehran had previously hidden illicit nuclear material in at least three locations: the Varamin, Marivan, and Turquzabad sites.

Reza Najafi, Permanent Representative of Iran to the United Nations (UN), seen at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 9, 2025 (credit: REUTERS/LISA LEUTNER)

Grossi also reported a huge jump by Iran to over 400 kg. of 60% highly-enriched uranium, a problem which was widely leaked to the media last week.

This is incredibly significant because it shows that the Islamic Republic’s advanced centrifuges could enrich enough uranium for multiple nuclear weapons in around three months.

Grossi still supportive of diplomatic deal possibility 

Despite these problems, Grossi reiterated his support for a diplomatic deal between the US and Iran to resolve the nuclear standoff instead of an Israeli strike on Tehran’s nuclear facilities, something which he has consistently opposed.

Grossi told the board that, last week, he met Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Cairo to try to promote cooperation regarding a potential new nuclear deal after the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal has mostly fallen apart in recent years.

He also mentioned that he provided the board members with “a comprehensive and updated assessment in connection with past and present outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear program.”

“AS YOU know,” Grossi said, “the agency found man-made uranium particles at each of three undeclared locations in Iran – at Varamin, Marivan, and Turquzabad – at which we conducted complementary access in 2019 and 2020. Since then, we have been seeking explanations and clarifications from Iran for the presence of these uranium particles, including through a number of high-level meetings and consultations in which I have been personally involved.

“Unfortunately, Iran has repeatedly either not answered or not provided technically credible answers to the agency’s questions. It has also sought to sanitize the locations, which has impeded agency verification activities.”

Grossi’s report gives significant new details about how and when Iran went about sanitizing – or erasing nuclear traces from – its various nuclear sites.

“The agency’s comprehensive assessment of what took place – based on our technical evaluation of all available safeguards-relevant information – has led us to conclude that these three locations, and other possible related locations, were part of an undeclared structured nuclear program carried out by Iran until the early 2000s and that some activities used undeclared nuclear material,” he stated.

Further, he warned that “Iran’s unilateral decision to stop implementation of modified Code 3.1 has led to a significant reduction in the agency’s ability to verify whether Iran’s nuclear program is entirely peaceful and is also contrary to its legal obligations set out in Article 39 of Iran’s Safeguards Agreement and in the Subsidiary Arrangements.”

Iran has frustrated the IAEA's attempts to follow its nuclear developments

Since 2021, the Islamic Republic has successively shut off IAEA surveillance cameras and kicked out certain agency inspectors to frustrate the watchdog’s ability to follow nuclear developments.

Moreover, he said, “The rapid accumulation of highly enriched uranium – as detailed in my other report before you: Verification and monitoring in the Islamic Republic of Iran in light of United Nations Security Council resolution 2231 (2015) – is of serious concern and adds to the complexity of the issues I have described.

“I am convinced that the only way forward goes through a diplomatic solution, strongly backed by an IAEA verification arrangement,” he stated.

“I will continue to support and encourage the US and Iran to spare no effort and exercise wisdom and political courage to bring this to a successful conclusion. The effect of a stabilized situation in Iran with regards to its nuclear program will be immediate and bring the Middle East one big step closer to peace and prosperity.”

Yonah Jeremy Bob

Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-857061

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