Iran complains about IAEA secretary general’s approach

TABNAK, Jun. 21 - Iran’s UN envoy filed a complaint in a letter to the United Nations Security Council regarding the approach of Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi toward the Islamic Republic’s peaceful nuclear activities.

News ID: 6542

Date: 21 June 2025 - 15:34

Iran’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Amir-Saeid Iravani has filed a complaint in a letter to the United Nations Security Council (U.N.S.C.) against Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi’s approach to the Islamic Republic’s peaceful nuclear activities.

Iravani presented the letter to the U.N.S.C. and the U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres in New York on Friday.

The full text of the letter is as follows:

Upon instructions from my Government, I am writing to share with Your Excellency the deep concerns of the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding the grave failure and inaction by the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mr. Rafael Grossi, in fulfilling his mandate and responsibilities under the IAEA Statute. In this regard, I would like to draw your attention and that of the Security Council’s members to the following points:

The public statements made by Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi in the period immediately preceding the recent act of aggression by the Israeli regime against the Islamic Republic of Iran constitute a clear and serious breach of the standard of impartiality required of his Office. Such statements are unequivocally incompatible with the legal duties and obligations imposed upon him under the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In view of the repeated, well-documented, and unambiguous warnings issued by the Islamic Republic of Iran concerning explicit threats by the Israeli regime against its nuclear sites and facilities—sites which remain under the full scope of IAEA safeguards and are dedicated exclusively to peaceful purposes—the Director General was under a direct and binding obligation to undertake appropriate preventive and deterrent measures, consistent with the mandate and objectives of the Agency. Neither the Director General nor the Agency has discharged this obligation. The failure to take any effective or deterrent action in response to these threats represents a dereliction of duty under the IAEA Statute and established international legal norms.

Of particular legal consequence is the Director General’s response at the press conference held following the opening of the Board of Governors on 9 June 2025. When confronted with explicit threats issued by the Israeli regime against safeguarded nuclear facilities in Iran, the Director General referred only to Israel’s so-called “concerns that need to be addressed,” while deliberately omitting any reference to the binding prohibitions enshrined in international law and codified in IAEA General Conference Resolutions GC(34)/RES/533 and GC(44)/RES/444, both of which categorically prohibit any threat or use of force against nuclear installations devoted to peaceful purposes. This omission represents a deliberate failure to uphold and apply binding legal principles within the Director General’s remit.

The Director General’s conduct in the aftermath of the aggression perpetrated by the Israeli regime further evidences a sustained failure to meet the standards of neutrality, objectivity, and professionalism required by his Office. His statement to the Board of Governors on 16 June 2025 failed to identify Israel as the responsible party for the aggression and omitted any condemnation of the unlawful targeting of safeguarded nuclear facilities, despite Israel’s own public and unapologetic declarations of intent to continue such actions “for as many days as it takes.” This failure to attribute responsibility or to issue condemnation constitutes a breach of the Agency’s duty to uphold the integrity of its safeguards system and undermines the foundational principles of the global non-proliferation regime.

The Director General’s continued silence and inaction in the face of these violations—contrary to the IAEA’s statutory responsibilities and the obligations arising under relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions—constitutes de facto complicity, by omission, in acts of aggression unprecedented in the history of the Agency.

This is not an isolated incident. The Director General has previously failed to respond to unlawful and escalatory conduct by the Israeli regime. Following the regime’s unprecedented threat to use nuclear weapons against the civilian population in Palestine and Gaza, the Ambassadors of the Member States of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Vienna addressed a joint communication to the Director General, dated 15 December 2023 (INFCIRC/1165), urging him to take a clear, principled, and public position in line with the Agency’s mandate. Despite the clarity and collective character of this appeal, the Director General failed to issue any public statement or take any formal action to acknowledge or condemn this grave threat, thereby abdicating his responsibilities under the Statute.

In stark contrast, the Director General has consistently adopted a politicized, selective, and discriminatory posture towards the Islamic Republic of Iran. When Iran lawfully exercised its sovereign rights under Article 9 of the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (CSA) to withdraw the designation of specific inspectors, the Director General responded with immediate and public condemnation. In his report to the Board of Governors dated November 2023 (GOV/2023/58), he employed unduly severe and accusatory language, singling out the Islamic Republic of Iran in a manner fundamentally inconsistent with the objectivity, restraint, and impartiality required under the Statute and expected of his Office.

The Director General’s conduct constitutes a clear and continuing breach of the legal obligations of neutrality, professionalism, and impartiality imposed by the IAEA Statute. This conduct has materially undermined the credibility, objectivity, and institutional legitimacy of the Agency. The Islamic Republic of Iran asserts that these actions are legally irreconcilable with the Director General’s binding obligations under Article III of the Statute and constitute a failure to discharge the functions of his Office in accordance with the requisite standards of independence, integrity, and impartiality.