Iran Criticizes IAEA Chief

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi gestures during an interview with Reuters in his office in Vienna, Austria December 3, 2019. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi gestures during an interview with Reuters in his office in Vienna, Austria December 3, 2019. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
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Iran Criticizes IAEA Chief

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi gestures during an interview with Reuters in his office in Vienna, Austria December 3, 2019. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi gestures during an interview with Reuters in his office in Vienna, Austria December 3, 2019. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

Several Iranian government agencies lashed out Tuesday at head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi who told an Austrian newspaper that Iranians continue to enrich uranium to a much higher degree than they have committed themselves to.

State-owned ISNA news agency “sounded the alarm bell” concerning the IAEA’s technical and legal standing and its neutrality since Argentinian diplomat Grossi was appointed to succeed late Yukiya Amano as the new director-general of the United Nations nuclear watchdog in October 2019.

On Monday, Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's ambassador and permanent representative to the Vienna-based international organization, also criticized Grossi for using irrelevant terms in his remarks on Iran’s nuclear program, saying such terms have no place in the IAEA’s documents.

“Drawing self-made criteria such as ‘breakout’ and ‘significant quantity’ for countries which are enriching uranium under the IAEA’s surveillance is non-relevant and has no status in the IAEA legal documents,” Gharibabadi stated.

The Iranian ambassador’s comments came a few days after Rafael Grossi told Die Presse that “the Iranians continue to enrich uranium, and to a much higher degree than they have committed themselves to. And this amount is growing by the month.”

Iran denies ever having had a nuclear weapons program, saying its nuclear program is purely for energy purposes.

Asked about how long Iran would need to build a nuclear weapon -- the so-called “breakout time”, Grossi said: “In the IAEA we do not talk about breakout time. We look at the significant quantity, the minimum amount of enriched uranium or plutonium needed to make an atomic bomb. Iran does not have this significant quantity at the moment.”

The most recent quarterly IAEA report on Iran last month said it had 2,105.4 kg of enriched uranium, far above the 202.8 kg limit in a 2015 deal with big powers but a fraction of the enriched uranium it had before the accord.

In late August, following a visit to Tehran by Grossi, Iran announced it would allow the IAEA access to two sites.



Trump Calls Musk's Formation of New Party ‘Ridiculous’

US President Donald Trump gestures after disembarking Marine One as he arrives at the White House in Washington, DC, July 6, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno/File Photo
US President Donald Trump gestures after disembarking Marine One as he arrives at the White House in Washington, DC, July 6, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno/File Photo
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Trump Calls Musk's Formation of New Party ‘Ridiculous’

US President Donald Trump gestures after disembarking Marine One as he arrives at the White House in Washington, DC, July 6, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno/File Photo
US President Donald Trump gestures after disembarking Marine One as he arrives at the White House in Washington, DC, July 6, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno/File Photo

US President Donald Trump on Sunday slammed former ally Elon Musk's launching of a new political party as “ridiculous,” after the tech billionaire said he wanted to challenge the country’s “one-party system.”

“I think it's ridiculous to start a third party,” Trump told reporters before he boarded Air Force One on his way back to Washington from his New Jersey golf club.

“It's always been a two-party system, and I think starting a third party just adds to confusion. Third parties have never worked,” he said.

Trump added, “So he can have fun with it, but I think it's ridiculous.”

Musk, the world's richest man, spent some $270 million underwriting Trump's 2024 re-election effort and, for a time, regularly showed up at the president's side in the White House Oval Office and elsewhere.

Musk spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), aimed at cutting government spending, before he pulled back his involvement in late May, saying he would now be allocating far more time to his electric vehicle company Tesla, which reported a huge drop in profit and sales worldwide since the tech tycoon made a brief venture into Trump's inner circle.

Shortly after his pull back from DOGE, the two men were exchanging bitter insults on social media after Musk criticized Trump's flagship spending bill.

As the bill made its way through Congress, Musk had threatened to form the “America Party” if “this insane spending bill passes.”

That bill passed the Senate by a narrow margin midday Tuesday.

In response, Musk carried out his threat and announced that he is establishing the “America Party.”