During the World Economic Forum in Davos, an alarming disclosure was made by Rafael Grossi, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), regarding Iran’s uncooperative stance towards the agency. Grossi expressed his grave concern, emphasizing that the agency felt it was being held “hostage” amidst Iran’s ongoing disputes with Western nations.
He cited as an example Iran’s denying inspectors access to nuclear sites because of their nationalities.
Rafael Grossi, by criticizing the “rejection of inspectors” by Iran due to their nationality, added: “Iran hardly cooperates with the International Atomic Energy Agency. The situation is very frustrating; they limit cooperation in a very unprecedented way.”
He emphasized the need for visibility commensurate with Iran’s ambitious nuclear goals. Despite Tehran’s consistent denial of any intention to produce nuclear weapons, the agency has been faced with the challenge of monitoring Iran’s expanding nuclear program.
He added, “When there’s something that France, the UK or the United States says that they don’t like, it is as if they were taking the IAEA hostage to their political disputes with others. This is unacceptable for us.”
Iran reduced the pace of its uranium enrichment last year as informal talks with the United States commenced. However, in late 2023, the regime resumed and accelerated its enrichment activities once again.
“The Iranians are accumulating [uranium]. They say it is for civilian purposes, but we haven’t seen much of that in use. It is, in fact, being stored. We have to divide carefully activities that may have future implications,” Grossi said on Iran’s lack of transparency and failure to provide clear explanations on crucial matters.
Grossi reiterated his commitment to a diplomatic solution and said, “Diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy, this is what we need. We need to continue talking, we need to prevent the situation deteriorating to a degree where it would be impossible to retrieve it.”
This is the latest of a series of recent warnings about the Iranian regime’s nuclear program. In an interview with the English-language newspaper The National published on January 16, Grossi said that Iran is “galloping ahead” with its program of enriching uranium at a high level.
“Iran is the only non-nuclear weapon state, which is enriching uranium at this very, very high level – very close to weapons grade.”
According to the agency, the amount of 60% enrichment by Iran, which had previously decreased to 3 kilograms per month, has increased again.
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Iran had increased the production of 60% enriched hexafluoride uranium to approximately 9 kilograms per month at the Fordow and Natanz sites since the end of November 2023.
The United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom condemned Iran’s acceleration of the speed and quantity of enriched uranium in a joint statement.
Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, referred to the reactions to the IAEA report as “media frenzy” aimed at “diverting public attention” from Gaza.
