No Evidence Iran Is Building Nuclear Bomb, Says UN Atomic Energy Chief

There is no evidence that Iran is building a nuclear bomb, the head of the UN’s atomic energy agency has said, despite claims by Israel and the US that the country poses an imminent nuclear threat. 

Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, gave the assessment on X on Tuesday.

“I have been very clear and consistent in my reports on Iran’s nuclear programme: while there has been no evidence of Iran building a nuclear bomb, its large stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium and refusal to grant my inspectors full access are cause for serious concern,” Grossi wrote. 

Among the US and Israel’s pretexts for their illegal and unprovoked attacks on Iran is the dismantling of its nuclear programme. 

In 2015, Iran and the US struck a deal that limited Iran’s nuclear capabilities, but Trump nixed it in 2018. In June last year, just as Iran and the US were on the verge of a new deal, Trump ordered military strikes on several Iranian nuclear sites.

As well as assassinating the Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the recent US-Israeli attacks on Iran have targeted hospitals, schools and residential buildings, killing hundreds of civilians, including many children.

An estimated 168 people, most or all young girls, were killed in an attack on a primary school in Minab on Saturday. The US and Israel, widely suspected of conducting the strike, have denied responsibility. Israel’s critics have accused it of repeatedly lying about its massacres of civilians throughout its genocide in Gaza. 

Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes on Israel and several Gulf states. 

Among the places that have been targeted is the RAF Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus, which some locals have nicknamed the “British genocide base” for its role in supporting Israel’s attacks in Gaza.