IAEA chief confirms agency has 'no proof' Iran building nuclear bomb
Israel has been pushing the US to join its war against Iran and take part in strikes on the country’s nuclear facilities
The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said on 17 June that there is “no proof” that Iran has been working toward the development of a nuclear weapon.
“What we informed and what we reported was that we did not have – as in coincidence with some of the sources you mentioned there, that we did not have any proof a systematic effort to move into a nuclear weapon,” Grossi said in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
The IAEA chief also said he is not aware of whether or not any secret activities were carried out by Iran without the knowledge of the UN watchdog.
A day earlier, Grossi said he could not confirm Israeli reports about the weaponization of the Iranian nuclear program.
“Well, I would not judge Israel’s intelligence readings,” the IAEA chief said.
“This is their evaluation … I’m not familiar with the internal reports or information that they may have. Whereas until the early 2000s there used to be … the general consensus not only from the IAEA, but in general, internationally, there had been a more or less structured and systematic effort in the direction of a nuclear device – this is not the case now, or at least we cannot say that we, as the IAEA, have enough credible elements, which will be pointing directly into this eventuality,” he added.
Grossi’s latest remarks on CNN came a week after the IAEA board passed a resolution accusing Iran of non-compliance with nuclear obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which Israel and its own illicit nuclear program are not subject to.
They also coincided with widespread anticipation of the US entering the war against Iran alongside Israel, particularly for an attack on the Fordow nuclear facility, which is heavily fortified and lies beneath a mountain.
Reports in Hebrew media have said the assessment in Israel is that US President Donald Trump is likely to join the war, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing for.
Israel and the US have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking to build a nuclear bomb over the past several years. Tel Aviv claims its war against the country aims to prevent this from happening.
However, US intelligence estimates have confirmed again that Iran is years away from being able to acquire such a weapon, and is not even actively pursuing the development of a nuke.
“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said on 17 June, before demanding “unconditional surrender” from Tehran and threatening the country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
According to a new poll released by The Economist and YouGov Poll, 60 percent of US citizens oppose Washington’s intervention in Israel’s war against Iran.
Trump’s escalatory statements have prompted many to draw parallels between the current situation and Washington’s false assessments prior to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, when Colin Powell appeared before the UN and said Saddam Hussein’s government was producing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
It has become common knowledge among US and western circles that these assessments, which were used as justification to invade Iraq, were completely untrue.
An annual US intelligence assessment published in March this year revealed that “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.”
Months earlier, former CIA chief William Burns said, “We do not see any sign today that any such decision has been made.”