The AP Interview: UN nuke chief says view of Iran blurred
ABC News
The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog has warned that the restrictions faced by his inspectors in Iran threaten to give the world only a “very blurred image” of Tehran’s program as it enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog warned Tuesday that the restrictions faced by his inspectors in Iran threaten to give the world only a “very blurred image” of Tehran's program as it enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.
Speaking in a wide-ranging interview to The Associated Press, Rafael Mariano Grossi said he wanted to tell Iran that there was “no way around” his inspectors at the International Atomic Energy Agency if the Islamic Republic wanted to be “a respected country in the community of nations.”
“We have to work together," Grossi said from a luxury hotel in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, after he visited that country's first nuclear power plant. “They must work together. I will make sure they understand that in us they will have a partner.”
Grossi's insistence that the Vienna-based IAEA remained “an auditor” for the world came as negotiations falter in Vienna to revive Tehran's tattered nuclear deal. Hours earlier, the chief of Iran's civilian nuclear program insisted his country would refuse the agency access to a sensitive centrifuge assembly plant.
