A senior adviser for Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, vowed in a social media post Saturday to make the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency “pay” once the war with Israel is over.
Ali Larijani's threat comes as IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has become a major target for many Iranian officials who say his conflicting statements about the status of Iran’s nuclear program incited the Israeli surprise attack last week.
Grossi, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, warned Friday at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council against attacks on Iran’s nuclear reactors, particularly its only commercial nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr.
“In case of an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a direct hit would result in a very high release of radioactivity,” Grossi said, adding: “This is the nuclear site in Iran where the consequences could be most serious.”
Israel has not targeted Iran’s nuclear reactors, instead focusing its strikes on the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, centrifuge workshops near Tehran, laboratories in Isfahan and the country’s Arak heavy water reactor southwest of the capital.
Iran previously agreed to limit its uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors access to its nuclear sites under a 2015 deal in exchange for sanctions relief. But after US President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the deal during his first term, Iran began enriching uranium up to 60% and restricting access to its nuclear facilities.
Iran has insisted on its right to enrich uranium — at lower levels — in recent talks over its nuclear program. But Trump, like Israel, has demanded Iran end its enrichment program altogether.
