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UN Nuclear Watchdog Chief Grossi Arrives in Iran for Talks

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi reacts as he chats with members of a youth organization supporting nuclear energy during the United Nations climate change conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan November 13, 2024. (Reuters)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi reacts as he chats with members of a youth organization supporting nuclear energy during the United Nations climate change conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan November 13, 2024. (Reuters)
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UN Nuclear Watchdog Chief Grossi Arrives in Iran for Talks

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi reacts as he chats with members of a youth organization supporting nuclear energy during the United Nations climate change conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan November 13, 2024. (Reuters)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi reacts as he chats with members of a youth organization supporting nuclear energy during the United Nations climate change conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan November 13, 2024. (Reuters)

UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi arrived in Iran for talks on Wednesday, Iranian state media reported, a day after he appealed to Iran's leadership to take steps to resolve longstanding issues with his agency over its nuclear program.

Iran's state news agency IRNA carried a video showing Grossi meeting the spokesperson for Tehran's state atomic energy agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, after his arrival.

The International Atomic Energy Agency head has for months sought progress with Iran on issues including a push for more monitoring cooperation at nuclear sites and an explanation of uranium traces found at undeclared sites.

But little has come from Grossi's efforts and with the return of President-elect Donald Trump, who is widely expected to restore a maximum-pressure policy on Iran, Grossi's trip should provide indications of how Iran wants to proceed in the coming months.

"I am far from being able to tell the international community ... what is happening. I would be in a very difficult position. So it's like they (Iran) have to help us, to help them to a certain extent," Grossi told Reuters on Tuesday.

Iran has stepped up nuclear activity since 2019, after Trump during his first term abandoned a 2015 deal Iran had reached with world powers, under which it curbed enrichment, and restored tough US sanctions on the country. Iran's work on enrichment has been seen by the West as a disguised effort to develop nuclear weapons capability.

Tehran is now enriching uranium to up to 60% fissile purity, close to the roughly 90% required for a nuclear bomb. But Iran has long denied any nuclear-bomb ambitions, saying it is enriching uranium for civilian energy uses only.

Grossi's trip comes a week before the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors meet in Vienna with the European parties to the 2015 accord - Britain, Germany and France - to consider whether to raise pressure on Iran given its lack of cooperation.

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Strong Earthquake Kills at Least 126 People in Tibet

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, rescue workers search for survivors in the aftermath of an earthquake in Changsuo Township of Dingri in Xigaze, southwestern China's Tibet Autonomous Region on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Xinhua via AP)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, rescue workers search for survivors in the aftermath of an earthquake in Changsuo Township of Dingri in Xigaze, southwestern China's Tibet Autonomous Region on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Xinhua via AP)
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Strong Earthquake Kills at Least 126 People in Tibet

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, rescue workers search for survivors in the aftermath of an earthquake in Changsuo Township of Dingri in Xigaze, southwestern China's Tibet Autonomous Region on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Xinhua via AP)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, rescue workers search for survivors in the aftermath of an earthquake in Changsuo Township of Dingri in Xigaze, southwestern China's Tibet Autonomous Region on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Xinhua via AP)

 A strong earthquake shook a high-altitude region of western China and areas of Nepal on Tuesday, damaging hundreds of houses, littering streets with rubble and killing at least 126 people in Tibet. Many others were trapped as dozens of aftershocks shook the remote region.
Rescue workers climbed mounds of broken bricks, some using ladders in heavily damaged villages, as they searched for survivors. Videos posted by China's Ministry of Emergency Management showed two people being carried on stretchers by workers treading over the debris from collapsed homes.
At least 188 people were injured in Tibet on the Chinese side of the border, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
More than 1,000 homes were damaged in the barren and sparsely populated region, state broadcaster CCTV reported. In video posted by the broadcaster, building debris littered streets and crushed cars.
According to The AP, people in northeastern Nepal strongly felt the earthquake, but there were no initial reports of injuries or damage, according to the country's National Emergency Operation Center. The area around Mount Everest, about 75 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of the epicenter, was empty in the depth of winter when even some residents move away to escape the cold.
The quake woke up residents in Nepal’s capital of Kathmandu — about 230 kilometers (140 miles) from the epicenter — and sent them running into the streets.
The US Geological Survey said the earthquake measured magnitude 7.1 and was relatively shallow at a depth of about 10 kilometers (6 miles). China's Earthquake Networks Center recorded the magnitude as 6.8. Shallow earthquakes often cause more damage.
The epicenter was in Tibet's Tingri county, where the India and Eurasia plates grind against each other and can cause earthquakes strong enough to change the heights of some of the world’s tallest peaks in the Himalayan mountains.
There have been 10 earthquakes of at least magnitude 6 in the area where Tuesday’s quake hit over the past century, the USGS said.
About 150 aftershocks were recorded in the nine hours after the earthquake, and the Mount Everest scenic area on the Chinese side was closed.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for all-out efforts to rescue people, minimize casualties and resettle those whose homes were damaged. More than 3,000 rescuers were deployed, CCTV said.
Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing was dispatched to the area to guide the work, and the government announced the allocation of 100 million yuan ($13.6 million) for disaster relief.
About 6,900 people live in three townships and 27 villages within 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) of the epicenter on the Chinese side, state media said. The average altitude in the area is about 4,200 meters (13,800 feet), the Chinese earthquake center said in a social media post.
On the southwest edge of Kathmandu, a video showed water spilling out into the street from a pond in a courtyard with a small temple.
“It is a big earthquake," a woman can be heard saying. "People are all shaking.”