The head of the United Nations nuclear monitoring agency, the IAEA, said Monday that his agency has “no indication” that Iranian nuclear facilities have been damaged by ongoing Israeli-US strikes on the country.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, however, warned that with the missiles still in flight, a “possible radiological release with serious consequences” could not be ruled out, calling the situation in the Middle East “very worrying” and calling for “utmost restraint” from all parties.
“I reiterate my call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid further escalation,” Grossi said in his statement, published by the IAEA, at the opening of the closed session.
“Iran and many other countries in the region that have been subject to military attacks have operational nuclear power plants and nuclear research reactors, as well as associated fuel storage sites, thereby increasing the threat to nuclear security,” he said. “Let me emphasize that the situation today is very worrying. We cannot rule out a possible radiological release with serious consequences, including the need to evacuate areas as large, or even larger, than major cities.”
He said the IAEA was trying to contact Iranian nuclear regulators, “with no response so far.”
The IAEA reported just days ago that, despite U.S. strikes in June that President Trump said “wiped out” Iran's nuclear program, the country still has a stockpile of about 972 pounds of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity — a technical step away from the level required for nuclear weapons.
Grossi said on February 19 that “most of the documents that Iran had accumulated until June of last year, despite the (US) bombings and attacks, are still there, in large quantities, where they were at the time of the strikes.” …Some of them may be less accessible, but the documents are still there. »
He called on Monday for the resumption of diplomatic negotiations “as quickly as possible”.
CBS/AFP
