By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

It is unbefitting of a senior official of the United Nations Organization to change his words on the same subject within a matter of a few days, if not hours – saying something in one place and almost the opposite in another place.
Argentine diplomat, Rafael Grossi, who is currently Director-General of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was recently in Tehran and held talks with Iranian Vice-President and Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI, Mohammad Eslami, as well as with Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
While in Tehran Grossi described his talks on the issue of inspection of Iran’s peaceful nuclear projects as “very constructive, correct, and professional”, but on reaching Vienna his statement to the IAEA’s 35-member Board said the talks in the Iranian capital “were inconclusive”.
So, what does one concludes from such self-contradictory remarks, which can neither be called diplomacy nor professional assessment of a purely technical issue?
It only shows that Mr. Grossi – with due respect to him – is too timid to handle a highly sensitive job as an independent person and is unduly awed by the bullying nature of the United States of America.
It is incorrect of him to state in his report to the IAEA Board that “there are a number of outstanding issues in terms of ‘Safeguards Matters’ on which it had not been possible to reach an agreement with Iran.”
This is nothing but creating misunderstanding on the international level regarding the peaceful atomic activities of Iran – the only country that allows round-the-clock IAEA inspections.
In addition, such dubious words provide pretext for the avowed enemies of Iran to come up with all sorts of accusations against the Islamic Republic which has ruled the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction as “haraam” (religiously forbidden).
In response to Grossi’s double talk, the AOEI spokesman set the matter right by clarifying: “At the Karaj nuclear facility, we don’t have nuclear material, and that’s why the site is not subject to the (IAEA) Safeguard Agreement. We produce centrifuges there.”
Behrouz Kamalvandi castigated the IAEA over its prejudiced approach toward Iran’s civilian nuclear programme. He said the UN nuclear watchdog is under the influence of major world powers, and asked it to refrain from politicizing technical matters that could be resolved otherwise.
He pointed out that Iran does not shy away from the fact that it is producing advanced centrifuges in the Karaj facility, adding: “Thank God, we are able to produce such centrifuges at a high capacity, and we do not need permission from anyone for this, since Iran is entitled to produce advanced centrifuges without having to endure any limits under Article 4 of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).”
It is also worth noting that Rafael Grossi did not censure the Zionist entity for its unlawful and dangerous weapons-oriented nuclear activities and its threats to attack Iran’s peaceful nuclear installations despite the fact that these are under full IAEA inspection.
He vaguely said Israel ought to join the NPT, without specifying what measures the UN nuclear watchdog would take and what penalties it would impose to make the usurpers of Palestine comply with international rules in order to make West Asia be free of nuclear armaments.
All this is indicative of the IAEA’s subservience to the roguish regimes in Washington and the deliberate distortion of NPT member Iran’s purely civilian nuclear project that neither warrants any accord such as the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action signed in Geneva in 2015) nor should be subjected to the economic terrorism of dangerously nuclear-armed US and Western Europe.