International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Grossi cautioned on Thursday against striking Iran’s nuclear sites, after Israel’s Defense Minister Yisrael Katz suggested they may be targeted.
“I say this with regards to Iran …, nuclear installations should not be attacked,” Grossi said during a news conference in Tehran, according to AFP.
Katz said on Monday that Iran was “more exposed than ever to strikes on its nuclear facilities. We have the opportunity to achieve our most important goal—to thwart and eliminate the existential threat to the State of Israel.”
Jerusalem is believed to have knocked out the Islamic Republic’s air defenses during its attack on Oct. 26, leaving the country’s nuclear facilities vulnerable.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly held back from attacking Iran’s nuclear sites due to pressure from the Biden administration. On the campaign trail in early October, a month before being reelected as U.S. president, Donald Trump said that Israel should strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in response to Tehran’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack on the Jewish state.
Jerusalem views a nuclear Iran as an existential threat.
Grossi was in Iran for his first visit to the country since May.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency said that he was expected “to negotiate with the country’s top nuclear and political officials.”
“Started my two-day visit to Iran with an indispensable meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi,” tweeted Grossi.

For his part, Araghchi described the talks as “important and straightforward,” adding that Iran is a committed member of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and will continue to fully cooperate with the IAEA.
“Differences can be resolved through cooperation and dialogue. We agreed to proceed with courage and good will. Iran has never left the negotiation table on its peaceful nuclear program. The ball is in the EU/E3 court. Willing to negotiate based on our national interest & our inalienable rights, but NOT ready to negotiate under pressure and intimidation,” Araghchi tweeted.

Grossi also reportedly met the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami, and was expected to later meet with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Furthermore, Grossi said that he would visit the Fordo and Natanz uranium enrichment sites on Friday to assist in giving him “a full picture” of the country’s nuclear program.
“Tomorrow will be a very important step in my visit this time, since I am going to be visiting important facilities in Fordo and Natanz, which are also going to help me in having a full picture of the evolution of the program,” the IAEA chief said alongside Araghchi.
In his remarks to AFP on Tuesday, Grossi said he expects to work together with President-elect Trump on the issue.
“I already worked with the first Trump administration and we worked well together,” the IAEA chief said.
During his first term in 2018, Trump pulled the United States out of the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran and stepped up sanctions on the regime in Tehran.
The president-elect plans to renew his “maximum pressure” policy on Iran when he returns to the White House on Jan. 20, including issuing punishing sanctions and targeting Tehran’s oil income.
Sources briefed on Trump’s early plans told The Wall Street Journal on Friday that the harsh measures against the regime are part of an aggressive strategy to weaken the Islamic Republic’s support for its regional terrorist proxies and significantly harm its nuclear ambitions.
Former Trump officials said that his approach to Iran will likely be influenced by its attempt to assassinate him. The U.S. Department of Justice charged three men on Friday who it said were involved in the Iranian plot.
Trump and Netanyahu “see eye-to-eye on the Iranian threat in all its aspects,” the Israeli premier said on Sunday following phone calls with the American.
“In recent days, I have spoken three times with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump,” Netanyahu revealed in a written statement published by the Prime Minister’s Office on Sunday afternoon.
The “very good and important talks” were meant to “further enhance the steadfast bond” with Washington, he said.
“We see eye-to-eye on the Iranian threat in all its aspects and on the dangers they reflect,” Netanyahu said. “We also see the great opportunities facing Israel, in the area of peace and its expansion, and in other areas.”
Tehran has the capacity to produce nuclear weapons should it choose to do so, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Nov 1.
“We now have the technical capabilities necessary to produce nuclear weapons,” Kamal Kharrazi told the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen outlet.
“Only the supreme leader’s fatwa currently prohibits it,” he said, referring to a religious ruling made by Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the mid-’90s.
“If the survival of Iran comes under serious threat, we reserve the right to reconsider,” added Kharrazi.
In May, Kharrazi told the ISNA news agency, “If the Zionist regime dares to damage Iran’s nuclear facilities, our level of deterrence will be different. We have no decision to produce a nuclear bomb, but if the existence of Iran is threatened, we will have to change our nuclear doctrine.”
The Iranian nuclear program is the greatest threat facing the Jewish state, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told the press on Monday.
“The most crucial issue for the future of our region and the security of Israel is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” he said.
“The most important issue by far for the future of this region and the security of the State of Israel is to avoid Iran getting a nuclear weapon,” Sa’ar stated, adding that he was confident that Israel and the United States would work together to stabilize the region.
A nuclear Iran poses a threat to the entire region, he said.
“Iran attacks other neighbors, [it] attacked the Saudis, for example. Iran is directly connected, financing and instructing and responsible for so many terror organizations, some of them became terror states in the region,” he noted.
The IAEA reports that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile has now reached 60% purity, nearing the 90% threshold needed for nuclear weapons. JNS
{Matzav.com}