Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei on Thursday blasted the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its director, Rafael Grossi, for condemning Iran’s nuclear program.
Baghaei accused the IAEA of helping Israel launch an “unjust war of aggression” against Iran.
The Iranian regime is furious at the IAEA for declaring Iran to be in breach of its nuclear non-proliferation obligations last Thursday. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has been frustrated with Iranian evasiveness and obstruction of its inspections for years, but Thursday was the first time since 2005 that it formally condemned Iran for non-compliance.
The governing board of the IAEA found Iran guilty of “many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019 to provide the agency with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations.” Iran’s failure to explain traces of uranium found at three undeclared nuclear sites was a particular annoyance.
The censure of Iran was seen as a momentous event by security analysts, and sure enough, Israel swiftly moved in to dismantle Iran’s air defenses, humiliate its military, and attack its nuclear program. The first wave of Israeli strikes was launched on Friday, the day after the IAEA condemned Iran.
On Wednesday, CNN Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour conducted an interview with Grossi in which the IAEA director said “we did not have any proof of a systematic effort to move into a nuclear weapon” by Iran:
The IAEA board of governors never said otherwise — its condemnation of Iran was based on verifiable and documented instances of Iran failing to comply with mandated inspections and refusing to answer questions about its uranium enrichment — but Tehran seized on the Amanpour interview as “proof” the U.N. colluded with Israel to set the Islamic Republic up for a fall.
“Mr. Grossi, this admission is too late!” Baghaei railed on X after CNN posted the Amanpour interview. “You hid this fact in your completely biased report — a report that was misused by the European countries and the United States to draft a resolution with baseless claims of ‘non-compliance.’”
“This same resolution was then used as the ultimate excuse by a warmongering and genocidal regime to launch an aggressive war against Iran and an illegal attack on our peaceful nuclear facilities,” the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman railed.
“Do you know how many innocent Iranians have been killed or injured as a result of this criminal war? Is this the standard by which an international official can be measured for leadership of the United Nations?” he asked Grossi rhetorically.
“Misleading narratives can have dangerous consequences, Mr. Grossi, and you must be held accountable,” Baghaei threatened.
“You made the International Atomic Energy Agency a partner in this unjust war, and you turned the agency into a tool at the service of countries outside the NPT to deprive members of the treaty of their fundamental rights under Article 4,” he accused.
Baghaei concluded his tirade by asking Grossi: “Do you really have a clear conscience?”
The NPT is the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1970, which essentially obliges nuclear-armed states to be responsible stewards of their arsenals, and requires other countries to refrain from developing nuclear weapons. The IAEA is charged with conducting inspections to ensure member states fulfill their obligations.
Iran signed the NPT in 1968, a decade before the violent revolution that brought the current Islamic Republic to power. Israel has not signed the NPT, and while it is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, its arsenal has never been officially confirmed.
Iran is threatening to withdraw from the NPT in the wake of Israel’s attack. The entire point of the IAEA condemnation last Thursday was that Iran is not fulfilling its responsibilities or cooperating with investigators, and it has been enriching uranium at levels far beyond any conceivable civilian purpose, but compliance would drop to zero three months after Iran’s formal withdrawal.
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