A nuclear deal between the US and Iran would be an “illusion” if the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were not involved, Director-General Rafael Grossi warned The Telegraph on Monday.
“Without verification, any agreement is no agreement. It’s an illusion of an agreement, or it’s a promise, which you don’t know whether it will be complied with or not,” Grossi explained, adding that the IAEA would be able to “confirm and certify that what they agree is in reality what is happening.”
“We know Iran very, very well, all the facilities. We are the only ones who could guarantee absolute impartiality in the work. Then if the parties agree to do something else, well, it’s in their freedom to do that. But I doubt it very much.”
When the Telegraph asked Grossi about the possibility raised by US President Donald Trump of the US invading Iran and seizing its nuclear materials, Grossi said that there would be “inherent challenges” to an attack.
“I don’t doubt for a second that the US has the military capabilities to do this, but I’m just saying this is a very delicate thing to handle, to manipulate, to move around.”
He added that “There is also an issue of access, which is possible, of course, but like in any other facility that has been bombarded, attacked, there are issues of the structural stability of the building and things like that.”
Nuclear arms race IAEA director’s ‘worst fear’
Grossi also said that the rise in global conflict and instability is prompting more countries to consider acquiring nuclear weapons, calling a nuclear arms race his “worst fear.”
Grossi listed Poland, South Korea, and Japan as countries debating whether to pursue nuclear armament. Other countries that are considering the possibility, the Telegraph reported, are Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Sweden.
“There is talk about ‘friendly proliferation.’” Grossi said. “There are all these things which fill me with concern because I believe that a world with 20 nuclear weapon states or more would be extremely dangerous.”
The “current atmosphere of fragmentation, conflict, polarisation,” Grossi explained, “might lead to a situation where several countries might say one day, we do not feel safe. We do not feel sufficiently protected.”
He also explained that Article 6 of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) requests that nuclear-armed states move towards nuclear disarmament.
“At this point in history, it is not something that we are going to be seeing,” he admitted. “Of course it’s an aspiration, it is there, we all want to move in that direction, but I am a realist.”
“At some point, we are going to see a crack in the system,” he said, “And then we’ll have a domino [effect]. It is a very, very fragile position.”
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