The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has proposed a meeting with Iran’s foreign minister amid fears of the impact of US strikes on the country’s nuclear sites.
Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement he had written to Abbas Araghchi and stressed the importance of working together and proposed meeting “soon”.
He said IAEA inspectors have remained in Iran throughout the conflict and were “ready to start working as soon as possible”, going back to the country’s nuclear sites and verifying the inventories of nuclear material.
“As I have repeatedly stated – before and during the conflict – nuclear facilities should never be attacked due to the very real risk of a serious radiological accident,” Grossi said.
“During these attacks, we have seen extensive damage at several nuclear sites in Iran, including its uranium conversion and enrichment facilities.
“Our assessment is that there has been some localised radioactive as well as chemical release inside the affected facilities that contained nuclear material – mainly uranium enriched to varying degrees – but there has been no report of increased off-site radiation levels.”
The statement comes after an Iranian lawmaker said Grossi should not be allowed to enter Iran.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy commission in Iran’s parliament, said cooperation with the IAEA should be suspended, the Iranian Students’ News Agency reported yesterday.
The same commission approved a day earlier the general outline of a bill meant to fully suspend Tehran’s cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.
