- Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, visited Iran on Monday.
- Grossi warned that Iran may have enough enriched uranium to build multiple nuclear bombs.
- Challenges include uncertainty regarding covert enrichment activities and confusion over oversight by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog visited Iran on Monday, but the agency is set to monitor the Islamic republic’s burgeoning nuclear program as tensions rise across much of the Middle East over the Israel-Hamas war. is facing increasing difficulties.
Rafael Mariano Grossi has already warned that the Iranian government has enriched uranium close to weapons grade, enough to make “several” nuclear bombs if it wanted to. He acknowledged that authorities cannot guarantee that Iranian centrifuges were not stripped for covert enrichment.
These challenges are currently caught up in attacks between Israel and Iran, and the city of Isfahan appears to have come under Israeli attack in recent weeks, despite being surrounded by sensitive nuclear facilities. . During his two-day visit to Iran, Grossi is likely to attend an Iranian nuclear conference to be held there.
UN leaders call for reparations to ‘overcome generations of exclusion and discrimination’
“The problem is not going away,” Grossi told the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board meeting in March. “It’s only going to get worse. So we need to take this issue seriously.”
International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi stands at the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo on March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hoshiko Eugene, Pool, File)
Iranian media said Grossi arrived in Tehran and will meet Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Monday afternoon. Grossi will visit Isfahan on Tuesday before returning to Vienna to update journalists there.
Tensions between Iran and the IAEA have been rising since then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. Since then, Iran has waived all program limits set in the deal and enriched uranium to 60% purity (nearly 90% weapons-grade).
IAEA surveillance cameras were jammed and Iran locked out some of the agency’s most experienced inspectors.
Iran’s nuclear activities raise concerns as UN watchdog warns of lack of transparency
Meanwhile, Iranian authorities have increasingly threatened to pursue nuclear weapons.
“For us, creating an atomic bomb is easier than not creating an atomic bomb,” said Mahmoud Reza Aghamili, president of Tehran Shahid Beheshti University and an expert in nuclear physics.
Iranian media reported that Agamiri acknowledged that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei had previously said that building an atomic bomb was prohibited.
“But if his fatwa and perspective change, we will also have the ability to build an atomic bomb,” Agamiri added.
Mr. Agamiri’s comments followed a drum roll from Iranian members of parliament, members of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, and the former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency suggesting that Iran might build a bomb.
Iranian diplomats have long pointed to Khamenei’s sermon as a binding fatwa (religious edict) that Iran will not build an atomic bomb.
“We don’t need a nuclear bomb. We have no intention of using a nuclear bomb,” Khamenei said in a November 2006 speech, according to records from his office. “We do not claim to rule the world like the Americans do. We need the nuclear bomb because we do not want to rule the world by force. Our nuclear bomb and explosive power are our beliefs.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
However, such a decree is absolutely not written. Khamenei’s predecessor, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa amending his own earlier declarations after seizing power after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. And anyone who follows the 85-year-old Khamenei as the country’s supreme leader can write their own fatwas that modify previously issued fatwas.
Meanwhile, tensions between Iran and Israel are reaching new heights. After an apparent Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria killed two Iranian generals and others, culminating a years-long shadow war between the two countries, Tehran launched an unprecedented drone attack against Israel. and began a missile attack.
Israel’s own nuclear weapons program, widely known to experts but never acknowledged by the country, could not deter an Iranian attack. And now experts are increasingly suggesting that Iran may pursue a bomb of its own after a major attack.
Analyst Saeed Leilers said in April: “I think a small-scale overt attack on Iranian soil by the United States and Israel will lead to Iran conducting its first nuclear test.”
