The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an arm of the United Nations, stated on Monday that there is no evidence of elevated radiation levels in Iran or that its illicit nuclear enrichment sites were attacked during America’s “Operation Epic Fury.”
President Donald Trump announced a massive military campaign on Saturday against the Iranian Islamist regime alongside the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), targeting much of the regime’s leadership. By Saturday night, Trump confirmed the death of 86-year-old longtime dictator Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the next day reportedly claimed that all potential successors his administration was examining had also died in the attacks.
“Operation Epic Fury” followed weeks of “indirect” talks between Tehran and Washington, mediated by the nation of Oman, in which Iran reportedly sought sanctions relief while the Trump administration pressured the state sponsor of terrorism to abandon its illicit nuclear program. President Trump explained the rationale for attacking Iran on Saturday by stating, “Iran is the world’s no.1 state sponsor of terror and has recently killed tens of thousands of its own people [and is] developing long range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas, and could even reach the American homeland.”
The status of Iran’s nuclear facilities remains unclear at press time on Monday as the Iranian government and the IAEA, the global body tasked with oversight on nuclear energy, disagreed on the issue. Speaking to the IAEA Board of Governors on Monday, the head of the agency, Rafael Grossi, stated that there was no evidence either America or Israel had targeted nuclear facilities.
“So far, no elevation of radiation levels above the usual background levels has been detected in countries bordering Iran and we have no indication that nuclear facilities have been hit, either in Iran, or in other States of the region,” Grossi stated.
“Efforts to contact the Iranian nuclear regulatory authorities through the IEC continue, with no response so far,” he continued, warning that “armed attacks on nuclear facilities should never take place as they could result in radioactive releases with grave consequences within and beyond the boundaries of the State in which such facilities have been attacked.”
Iranian envoy to the IAEA Reza Najafi told reporters on Monday that, contrary of Grossi, the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz had suffered a strike.
“Again they attacked Iran’s peaceful, safeguarded nuclear facilities yesterday,” he insisted in remarks first published by Reuters, also reported by the Iran-friendly Lebanese news agency al-Mayadeen.
Natanz is one of Iran’s three most sophisticated known nuclear facilities, alongside the enrichment sites in Fordow and Isfahan. President Trump first targeted all three sites in June following a similarly failed attempt at negotiations with Iran at the time.
“Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horrible destructive enterprise,” Trump said during a speech announcing the strikes, declaring them “a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror” and referring to the June bombings as a “spectacular military success.”
Grossi highlighted in his remarks on Monday that Iran has refused to let IAEA inspectors visit Fordow, Natanz, or Isfahan since the attacks, making it difficult for him to gauge the true status of the sites.
“As stated in the report, Iran continued to facilitate Agency access to facilities in Iran unaffected by the June 2025 attacks,” he told the Board of Governors. “However, Iran provided neither reports nor access to the Agency, as required under its NPT Safeguards Agreement, to the affected facilities and associated nuclear material. Moreover, Iran did not provide access to the Agency to verify the suspension of all enrichment, reprocessing and heavy water related activities as required by the relevant Security Council and Board resolutions.”
The IAEA Board of Governors passed a resolution in November urging Iran to allow its inspectors to visit the sites, which Tehran ignored. At the time, Grossi lamented that “full compliance on the part of Iran” was necessary for any diplomatic solution to the current crisis to take place. In January, as intransigence from the regime hampered yet another round of talks, President Trump warned that a campaign such as that of “Operation Epic Fury” would be inevitable without some attempt at compromise.
“Hopefully Iran will quickly ‘Come to the Table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal — NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS — one that is good for all parties. Time is running out,” Trump warned at the time, “it is truly of the essence! As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn’t, and there was ‘Operation Midnight Hammer,’ a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse!”
Grossi expressed “frustration” again on Monday that talks with Iran had not resulted in a peaceful responsible and reiterated a call for diplomacy rather than war. He also issued a warning apparently to Iran not to target nuclear sites in other parts of the Middle East.
“Over the past days several countries in the region have been attacked, all of them use nuclear applications in one way or the other,” Grossi observed, “including in nuclear power plants and in nuclear research reactors. We cannot rule out the risk of a radiological consequence, even one that could require evacuations of large areas.”
“We must return to diplomacy and negotiations. It is the only way to achieve the long-term assurance that Iran will not acquire nuclear weapons,” he concluded.
Iran has bombed at least nine countries since Saturday: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, Oman, and Cyprus. Reports indicated on Monday that Saudi Arabia was forced to temporarily shut down Aramco’s largest oil refining complex, Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) paused oil production, and Qatar halted its liquified natural gas production in response to missile and drone strikes by Iran. Grossi stated on Monday that he did not yet have any evidence that the affected nations’ nuclear sites were impacted.
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