Iran Rejects IAEA’s Request to Visit Bombed Sites

Fri Jun 27 2025
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Tehran: Iran on Friday dismissed a request by the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, to visit bombed nuclear facilities, saying that it suggested “malign intent”.

“Rafael Grossi’s insistence on visiting the bombed sites under the pretext of safeguards is meaningless and possibly even malign in intent. Iran reserves the right to take any steps in defense of its interests, its people, and its sovereignty,” Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X.

He said that Grossi has failed to explicitly condemn such blatant violations of IAEA safeguards and its Statute. “The IAEA and its Director-General are fully responsible for this sordid state of affairs,” he noted.

He charged that the IAEA chief had “directly facilitated… the unlawful Israeli and US bombings” by “obfuscating” Iran’s efforts to allay the watchdog’s concerns in a May 31 report that accused it of “less than satisfactory” cooperation.

That report led to the adoption of a censure motion by the IAEA board of governors that Iran says cleared the way for the 12-day war Israel launched on June 13.

Araghchi said the Parliament of Iran has voted for a halt to collaboration with the IAEA until the safety and security of our nuclear activities can be guaranteed.

Grossi had called on Monday for IAEA inspectors to be granted access to Iran’s nuclear facilities so that they could establish what had happened to its large stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

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