Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images
Iran’s head of the Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Eslami (right) and the United Nations nuclear chief Rafael Grossi give a joint press conference in Tehran on Nov. 14, 2024
(JNS) — International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Grossi cautioned on Thursday against striking Iran’s nuclear sites, after Israel’s Defense Minister Israel 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.
President-elect Trump 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.
“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.”
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 IAEA reports that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile has now reached 60% purity, nearing the 90% threshold needed for nuclear weapons.
