Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arrived in Tehran on Wednesday evening.
Prior to his trip, Grossi said that the IAEA is not part of the bilateral discussions between Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian regime’s foreign minister, and Enrique Mora, the EU’s coordinator for nuclear talks, but it is not indifferent to them either.
Grossi added that they are well aware that the IAEA must provide its opinion on any potential agreement, as the agency will be responsible for its verification.
Before his trip to Iran, Rafael Grossi expressed his willingness for the IAEA to be involved in the nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran’s regime in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde.
Grossi said the IAEA has already initiated informal exchanges with the negotiating parties and added that once there is a text with concrete content, the agency will be asked to give its opinion regarding the procedures and the extent of inspections conducted.
Grossi emphasized that without the presence of the IAEA, any agreement regarding Iran is merely a piece of paper… For such an agreement to be meaningful, there must be credible systems and strong monitoring mechanisms, which only the IAEA can provide.
Regarding the nuclear capability of Iran’s regime, Grossi said that although the regime possesses enough material to produce not just one, but several nuclear bombs, it does not yet have a nuclear weapon. He likened it to a puzzle: they have the pieces, and they may one day be able to put them together.
He emphasized that while the Iranian regime is still some distance away from acquiring a nuclear weapon, it must be acknowledged that it is not very far from it either.
According to Grossi, over the past four years, the Iranian regime has significantly accelerated its uranium enrichment process, while at the same time, the scope of the IAEA’s intervention has diminished.
He stated that for the international community, it is not enough for Tehran to simply say, “We do not have a nuclear weapon”; in order for the world to believe it, the IAEA must be able to verify that claim.
