IAEA’s Grossi Lands in Tel Aviv Ahead Of UN Nuclear Agency Meet

By Staff, Agencies

The chief of the United Nations nuclear agency traveled to the ‘Israeli’-occupied Palestinian territories and met the Zionist regime's extremist premier Naftali Bennett, ahead of the body's Board of Governors meeting on Monday.

The high-profile visit by Rafael Grossi also comes in the wake of the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] on Iran’s nuclear program amid a stalemate in Vienna talks to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA].

Iran has on many previous occasions cautioned the UN nuclear agency against allowing the ‘Israeli’ regime to influence its independent mandate and decision-making.

On Thursday, during a phone call with his Singaporean counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian described any political interference in the technical affairs of the IAEA as “unconstructive.”

He said during Grossi’s recent visit to Iran, the two sides had reached a mutually satisfactory agreement through a positive process.

However, the IAEA's latest report last week drew Iran's criticism, rejecting it as "unfair and unbalanced" that had deviated from the technical path under Zionist pressure.

Earlier this week, Bennett accused Iran of stealing classified documents from the IAEA and using them to deceive international inspectors nearly two decades ago. Iran rejected the allegations as outright lies.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh on Wednesday called the ‘Israeli’ regime “the world's #1 JCPOA hater” which he said also “happens to be NPT-denier and the only nuke-possessor” of the region.

“We know this. The world knows this. Time for E3/US to stop pretending to be asleep. They can pursue diplomacy—or pursue the opposite. We're ready for both,” the spokesman said.