The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency questioned Tehran’s claim that Iran’s nuclear facilities are “unsafe” and stated that IAEA inspectors must determine whether access to these facilities is possible or not. At the same time, the spokesperson of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said the agency’s demand in this regard is “unreasonable.”
In an interview with the Russian news agency RIA Novosti published on Saturday, December 20, the director general of the IAEA said Iranian regime officials claim that “the facilities are unsafe and cannot be accessed,” but in that case, inspectors must be allowed to verify whether access is truly impossible.
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Rafael Grossi added that this issue is now the subject of discussions between the agency and Tehran, and he expressed hope that a certain degree of progress could be achieved.
The issue of Iran’s enriched uranium has become a serious challenge for the IAEA following the 12-day war.
In August, Fatemeh Mohajerani, spokesperson for the government of Iranian regime president Masoud Pezeshkian, stressed during her weekly press conference that the enriched uranium was “buried somewhere” and that there is no access to it.
Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister of the Iranian regime, also said in an interview with the regime’s state broadcaster on September 12 that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is “under the rubble of bombed nuclear facilities.”
Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said on Friday, December 19, that Moscow wants the director general of the IAEA to adopt a “professional and impartial approach” in assessing the Iranian regime’s nuclear program.
The agency’s emphasis on the need for access to all of Iran’s nuclear facilities
In another part of the interview with RIA Novosti, Grossi said that first of all, Iran possesses far more than these three facilities. While these three sites are very important in terms of reprocessing, conversion, and uranium enrichment, Iran’s nuclear program is not limited to them.
He continued that Iran has a very advanced nuclear program with a strong research and scientific component and numerous other facilities across the country. There is also a nuclear power plant in Bushehr, and plans have been discussed for building new plants as well, including, if he was not mistaken, jointly with Russia. Therefore, work continues in all these areas.
Kamalvandi: Inspecting sites is an unreasonable demand
At the same time as Grossi’s remarks, Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesperson and deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, described the agency’s request to inspect the Iranian regime’s nuclear facilities as “unreasonable.”
He told the state-run ISNA news agency on December 19: “We need to take measures and see whether it is possible to carry out material accountancy through other means and inform the agency, without inspectors going to the site in question. Some ideas and methods are coming to mind, but these issues need to be negotiated.”
This senior Iranian regime official added: “The agency’s insistence that Iran must allow access and inspections of materials and sites or report to the agency strictly in accordance with the safeguards agreement, which was written for non-war conditions, is an unreasonable demand.”
While Tehran has announced that the agreement reached with the agency in Cairo has been canceled, Kamalvandi warned: “Whether they like it or not, conditions have changed, and if we want to resume serious negotiations with the agency, Iran’s considerations must be taken into account.”
In recent months, a number of Iranian regime officials have labeled Grossi a “Mossad agent,” and the state-run Kayhan newspaper, overseen by a representative of Iranian regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei, even called for his execution on charges of “spying” for Israel.
The Ynet news website reported on December 19 that prior to the 12-day war with Israel, the Iranian regime was researching the development of a fourth generation of nuclear weapons based on pure fusion.
According to the report, published on Friday, December 19, research in Iran has focused on a completely new type of nuclear weapon that no country has yet managed to produce.
The report stated that this type of fusion does not require uranium or plutonium and leaves almost no radiation or radioactive contamination behind.
The report was published amid rising speculation in recent days about the fate of the Iranian regime’s nuclear program and the potential reactions of the United States, Israel, and the European troika.
