Iran’s nuclear ambassador says airstrikes targeted enrichment facility
By STÉPHANIE LIECHTENSTEIN
VIENNA (AP) — Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday that U.S. and Israeli airstrikes targeted his country’s Natanz enrichment facility.
That contradicts an assessment by the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, who said that “so far” the agency had “no indication” that nuclear facilities had been hit in Iran.
“Just yesterday they attacked Iran’s protected peaceful nuclear facilities. Their justification that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons is simply a big lie,” Reza Najafi told reporters at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, where a special session of the Board of Governors is being held at Russia’s request.
When asked by a reporter which nuclear facility he was referring to, Najafi replied “Natanz.”
The Natanz site, about 220 km south of the capital, is a mix of above-ground and underground laboratories that have carried out the majority of Iran’s uranium enrichment.
Before the war, the IAEA said Iran used advanced centrifuges there to enrich uranium up to 60 percent, a short technical step compared to weapons-grade levels of 90 percent. Some of the equipment was likely on site when the entire complex was attacked last June.
The main surface enrichment building at Natanz was known as the Fuel Enrichment Pilot Plant. Israel struck the building on June 13, leaving it “functionally destroyed” and severely damaging underground halls housing cascades of centrifuges, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said at the time. Another American attack, on June 22, hit the Natanz underground facilities with bunker busting bombs, likely decimating what remained.
IAEA says ‘so far’ no nuclear facilities have been hit in Iran
Addressing the special session of the Board of Governors, IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi said that “so far” the International Atomic Energy Agency had “no indication that any of the nuclear facilities, including the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, the Tehran Research Reactor or other nuclear fuel cycle facilities” in Iran, had been damaged or affected.
He added that the IAEA continues to try to contact Iranian nuclear authorities through its own Incident and Emergencies Center “with no response so far” given communications limitations caused by the conflict.
Grossi called for military restraint, warning that Iran and many other countries in the region that have been targeted militarily have “operational nuclear power plants and nuclear research reactors, as well as associated fuel storage sites, thereby increasing the threat to nuclear security.”
He added that so far “no rise in radiation levels above usual background levels has been detected in countries bordering Iran.”
Najafi attacks Trump
Najafi added that the United States uses “deception and disinformation to invade other countries.” He said the war was started by US President Donald Trump, “who is trying to present himself as a man of peace and asking for the Nobel Peace Prize. Even when they talk about peace, it’s a lie. And if they call for diplomacy, it’s a deception,” he said.
Najafi said the strikes against his country were “illegal, criminal and brutal” and called on states on the 35-member IAEA Board of Governors to “categorically condemn” the attacks.
The Associated Press receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Outrider Foundation for its coverage of nuclear security. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/
