12-07-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
IAEA helped eliminate our nuclear scientists, alleges Iran's Consul General to India
The targeted killing by Israel of 16 scientists and researchers associated with Iran's nuclear programme was made possible by systematic leaks and addresses provided by personnel of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), alleged Mohseni Fard, Iran's Consul General in India.
Discussing the takeaways from the 12-day Iran-Israel conflict in an interaction with a few senior journalists, Fard alleged the IAEA, led by its Director General Rafael Grossi, had become a front of the 'US-Israeli axis' deploying as many as 25 percent of its monitors for Iran's nuclear sites. He said the IAEA remaining silent while the Americans bombed Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites on June 22 was a violation of the IAEA code.
However, when pressed whether Iran would exit the IAEA in protest since Iran's Parliament had authorised it, Fard said an executive decision to that effect had not been taken. "The door is still open, even though legislative steps had been taken to exit IAEA," he said.
He also conceded that the targeted killings of senior military personnel including General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the airspace unit of the Revolutionary Guards, and General Gholamreza Mehrabi, the deputy intelligence chief, was due to systematic infiltration of the intelligence community by Israel's Mossad over a period of time.
The Consul General was non-committal on the extent of damage to Iran's nuclear programme, but said Iran was committed to resuming uranium enrichment and its nuclear energy programme for peaceful purposes. He denied suggestions that Iran had reached 90 percent weapons-grade enrichment, asserting it was to the extent of 60 percent.
"We will never go for nuclear weapons, as it is 'haram' in our religion," he said, adding, "but no one can take away our right of developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes including for medical science."
