BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) 鈥 The head of the United Nations鈥 nuclear watchdog said Tuesday he's hopeful that meetings this week with Iranian officials, including the country's new president, can lead to a breakthrough in monitoring the country's nuclear program, a longstanding issue that has gained new urgency as Israel has twice struck Iran amid rising tensions in the Middle East.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, will travel to Iran on Wednesday to meet for the first time with President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was elected in July. Grossi said he hopes to build on positive discussions he had with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during the U.N. General Assembly in September.
鈥淲e have a problem that we need to solve,鈥 Grossi said in an interview at in Azerbaijan. 鈥淭hat is this gap, this lack of confidence, which we should not allow to grow into a self-fulfilling prophecy of using nuclear facilities as targets.鈥
He added: 鈥淭here has been a bit of a dire straits dynamic with Iran that we want to go beyond.鈥
Iran is rapidly advancing its atomic program while increasing stockpiles of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels, all in defiance of international demands, according to the IAEA. Iran says its program is for energy purposes, not to build weapons.
Grossi's visit comes as Israel and Iran have traded missile attacks in recent months after more than a year of war in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas, a group supported by Iran.
Grossi noted that international law prohibits the attack of nuclear facilities and 鈥渋t鈥檚 obvious that is something that can have radiological consequences.鈥 The Biden administration said last month that it had that it would not attack nuclear or oil sites.
A 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers put limits on Iran's nuclear program, which the West fears could be used to make nuclear weapons. The deal included the lifting of economic sanctions on Iran.
But that deal collapsed after Donald Trump's administration in 2018 pulled the United States from it. That led Iran to abandon all limits put on its program and enrich uranium to up to 60% purity.
When asked if the IAEA feared Iran may be developing a bomb, Grossi said he didn't 鈥渉ave any information that would sustain that.鈥 He added that inspectors' job was not to 鈥渏udge intentions,鈥 but rather verify that what Iran says about its nuclear program was true.
Trump's reelection last week raises questions about
Grossi said he had worked with the first Trump administration, which he said engaged in 鈥渟eamless, professional work," and looked forward to looking with Trump's second administration.
鈥淐ircumstances have changed in that the problem has grown bigger than it was,鈥 said Grossi. 鈥淭he problem of not finding a solution.鈥
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