According to KhabarOnline, an Iranian News Agency, In a recent interview, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi called on Iran to allow Agency inspectors access to its nuclear sites. He said the IAEA insists on such access in order to verify claims by Iranian officials that some facilities are unsafe or inaccessible.
Responding to a question about how the Agency intends to justify the continuation of its presence in Iran and the need for inspections, given Washington’s claims that all of Iran’s nuclear facilities were destroyed during the 12-day war, Grossi said Iran’s nuclear activities are not limited to three facilities alone.
“These three sites are highly important in terms of reprocessing, conversion, and uranium enrichment,” he said, “but Iran’s nuclear program goes far beyond them and includes an advanced research and development sector as well as numerous other facilities across the country.”
Grossi added that Iran also operates an active nuclear power plant—the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant—and has plans to construct additional power plants, some of which may be implemented in cooperation with Russia. He stressed that activities in all of these areas are continuing.
NPT Obligations
In another part of the interview, Grossi referred to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), stating that under the NPT and the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement, Iran is obliged to provide the IAEA with access to its nuclear facilities.
He said this issue remains part of the ongoing dialogue between the Agency and Iran, noting that Iranian officials have argued that certain locations are unsafe and cannot be accessed.
According to Grossi, in such circumstances, inspectors must be allowed to enter and independently confirm whether access to nuclear facilities that were targeted by the United States and the Israeli regime is indeed impossible.
Hope for Progress
Grossi expressed hope that the ongoing talks with Iran would lead to progress.
His remarks come as the Pentagon has previously claimed that following U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Iran’s nuclear infrastructure was completely destroyed and its nuclear capabilities significantly set back. U.S. President Donald Trump has also repeatedly asserted that Iran would need years to restart its nuclear program.
Iran, however, has rejected these claims. Kazem Jalali, Iran’s ambassador to Russia, has emphasized that the U.S. attacks caused only minor damage and that Tehran intends to continue its peaceful nuclear energy program.