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Today's Paper | March 18, 2026

Published 19 Jun, 2025 01:54pm

Iran’s foreign ministry criticises UN nuclear watchdog chief for creating ‘pretext’ for Israeli attack

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman has accused International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi and his organisation of being complicit in the ongoing conflict, saying their “biased” reporting on Iran’s nuclear activities was used as a “pretext” for Israel to attack.

Responding to Grossi’s recent comment that the agency has no hard evidence Iran is actively developing nuclear weapons, Esmaeil Baghaei said: “This is too late.”

“You obscured this truth in your absolutely biased report that was [instrumentalised] by E3/US [France, Germany, the UK and the US) to craft a resolution with baseless allegation of ‘non-compliance’,” Baghaei wrote on X.

“The same resolution was then utilised, as a final pretext, by a genocidal warmongering regime to wage a war of aggression on Iran and to launch an unlawful attack on our peaceful nuclear facilities.”

“Do you know how many innocent Iranians have been killed/maimed as a result of this criminal war?” he said. “Misleading narratives have dire consequences, Mr Grossi, and demand accountability.”

“You betrayed the non-proliferation regime; You’ve made IAEA a partner to this unjust war of aggression”.

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