Grossi: Uranium Enrichment is Not Prohibited Under International Law

Iran claims that it obtained secret information about Israel's nuke program

Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Monday that uranium enrichment is not prohibited under international law as U.S. President Donald Trump follows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s instructions that Iran must destroy its entire nuclear program, which Tehran said is a non-starter.

“Uranium enrichment per se is not a forbidden activity, which is something my Iranian counterparts always tell me. One important clarification is that this material is not equivalent to nuclear weapons… the amount of material that you would need to have it,” he said.

Trump told reporters on Friday that the nuclear deal that has been presented to Iran calls for zero enrichment – a non-starter for Iran – and hinted that he may have to take the military option.

“They won’t be enriching,” he said. “If they enrich, then we’re going to have to do it the other way,” he said.

Axios reported that Israel assured Trump that it would not carry out strikes on Iran until Trump signals that “negotiations with Iran have failed.”

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has essentially rejected any proposal that does not allow enrichment.

“To the American side and others we say: Why are you interfering and trying to say whether Iran should have uranium enrichment or not? That’s none of your business,” he posted on X.

The Wall Street Journal noted that there have been five rounds of talks between the U.S. and Iran about the country’s nuclear program.

Steve Witkoff, the special envoy, reportedly submitted a proposal that would allow Tehran to enrich for a limited time before eventually phasing out its program, the report said.

Netanyahu and Trump held a phone call on Monday.

Grossi held a press conference in Vienna after meeting with the agency’s Board of Governors, according to Iran’s Press TV.

He refused to confirm that Tehran has nuclear weapons or has a “possible military dimension” to its nuclear program, stating that the “judgmental gap, is something that is in the hands of countries.”

Esmaeil Baqaei, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said Tehran has respected the terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and said the agency “did not mention any non-compliance or deviation in Iran’s nuclear program from the peaceful path,” according to IRNA.

“If you look at the history of the issue, as I mentioned before, the Zionist regime first claimed in 1984 that Iran was seeking to produce nuclear weapons. Now, 40 years have passed since then and the status of the JCPOA is also clear to everyone,” he said.

Grossi confirmed reports that the Iranians managed to obtain information about the Israeli nuclear program. (Israel has never confirmed that it possesses nuclear weapons, but is believed to have about 400, enough to carry out its Samson Option.)

“We have seen some reports in the press. We haven’t had any official communication about this. In any case, this seems to refer to Soreq, which is a research facility which we inspect by the way. We don’t inspect other strategic parts of the program, but this part of the program we do inspect,” he said, according to the Associated Press.

Esma’eel Khatib, the Iranian intelligence minister, said “the trove includes records related to Israel’s nuclear program, as well as documents concerning the United States, Europe, and other countries,” according to IRNA.

In 2022, the UN General Assembly voted on a resolution — introduced by Egypt — demanding that Israel destroy its nuclear weapons arsenal, even though Tel Aviv never officially confirmed that it has the weapons.

The resolution was opposed by the U.S., Micronesia, Canada, and Palau, but sponsored by nations that signed on to the Abraham Accords, including the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Jordan, and Bahrain.

The resolution called on Israel to accede to the Treaty without further delay and, in the meantime, not to “develop, produce, test, or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons, to renounce possession of nuclear weapons and to place all its unsafe guarded nuclear facilities under the full scope of Agency safeguards as an important confidence-building measure among all States of the region and as a step toward enhancing peace and security.”

Readers of this publication know that Israel does not have to play by the same rules as other countries in the region because of U.S. support. The resolution noted that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that has not signed on to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The countries that opposed the measure, led by the U.S., said they are concerned about the “risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.”

The UNGA voted 152-5 (24 abstentions) to call on Israel to get rid of its nuclear weapons. Germany, France, and the U.K. abstained from voting. BRICs like Russia, South Africa, Brazil, China, all voted in favor of the resolution. So did Ukraine, which sparked some online backlash after Israelis took to social media noting how Kyiv has demanded aid from Israel “while at the same time voting against it at the UN.”