Head of UN nuclear watchdog: 'Dire straits dynamic' with Iran's nuclear program amid Mideast wars
The head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog will travel to Iran this week to meet with officials including its new president
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said Tuesday he's hopeful that meetings this week with Iranian officials, including the country's new president, can lead to a breakthrough in monitoring the country's nuclear program, a longstanding issue that has gained new urgency as Israel has twice struck Iran amid rising tensions in the Middle East.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, will travel to Iran on Wednesday to meet for the first time with President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was elected in July. Grossi said he hopes to build on positive discussions he had with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during the U.N. General Assembly in September.
“We have a problem that we need to solve,” Grossi said in an interview at the U.N. climate conference in Azerbaijan. “That is this gap, this lack of confidence, which we should not allow to grow into a self-fulfilling prophecy of using nuclear facilities as targets.”
He added: “There has been a bit of a dire straits dynamic with Iran that we want to go beyond.”
