Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), made the comments in a televised interview on Tuesday, addressing remarks made by Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“Mr. Grossi’s remarks lack technical and legal aspect,” the Iranian official said, describing the IAEA chief’s discourse as totally being the product of “the psychological and political operations that the Zionist regime [of Israel] has been performing” against the Islamic Republic.
He said by passing the remarks, Grossi had clearly shown “his [true] character,” and proven to be among those that have been waging psyops against Iran for long.
Eslami was referring to Grossi’s interview with i24NEWS, an Israeli TV channel, in which the latter had said the Israeli regime could not “destroy” Iran’s nuclear facilities with “a single surgical strike. "Disrupting them (the facilities) would require overwhelming and devastating force,” the IAEA chief had also said.
The Iranian nuclear chief said Grossi had issued the remarks, despite lacking all jurisdiction to comment on such issues. Eslami noted that the international law and precautions that concerned such matters essentially robbed the IAEA director general of any entitlement to intervene in affairs of such nature.
Grossi had also said, “Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon at this moment,” but claimed that “it has the material” to make one, echoing the Israeli regime’s and its Western allies’ unfounded allegations about, what the accusing sides have described as, Iran’s so-called “diversion” towards obtaining nuclear arms or its intention to develop one.
The campaign has, most recently, manifested itself in the form of the IAEA Board of Governors issuing yet another anti-Iranian resolution amid Western and Israeli pressure.
The campaign rages on, while the Islamic Republic is the most-vetted member of the IAEA, with the agency having found no evidence in support of the alleged “diversion.”
Tehran, itself, has also categorically ruled out the prospect of either pursuing, obtaining, or maintaining nuclear arms in line with moral and religious guidelines.
Grossi had, however, additionally, alleged that the Islamic Republic harbored a “determination” to develop such weapons, adding that likely Israeli military aggression against the country could “potentially have an amalgamating effect, solidifying Iran’s determination.”
He had also pointed to the Israeli regime’s repeated threats to use military aggression against Iran’s nuclear facilities, alleging that the threats meant that “the Iranian thing has incredible potential to become catastrophic."
Eslami, however, denounced Grossi for resorting to “expressing concern for Israel,” a regime that, unlike Iran, was a possessor of nuclear arms, and a non-member of the IAEA’s Safeguards Agreement that would not brook any oversight of its nuclear sites.
Adding to his comments, the Iranian official regretted that the IAEA chief’s remarks indicated that “international organizations [such as the UN nuclear agency] are a tool in the hands of dominant powers as well as being totally subject to Israeli influence.”
On the other hand, Iran’s attitude of outright opposition to the Israeli regime’s atrocities, including those committed against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, proved that the Islamic Republic’s view of various nations’ rights in the face of foreign aggression was a “realistic one,” Eslami concluded.
Press TV