Transcription
The UN's nuclear watchdog has held an urgent meeting in Vienna. The International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors came together at the request of Russia. It's concerned about Israeli attacks against several Iranian nuclear facilities, like the Natan site. The IEA's director general says there's no sign of further damage in Natanz, but has called on both sides to lower tensions. Military escalation threatens lives, increases the chance of a radiological release with serious consequences for people and the environment, and delays indispensable work towards a diplomatic solution for the long-term assurance that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons. Consistent with the objective of the IEA and its statute, I call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid further escalation.
Rory Chalins has been keeping an eye on that meeting for us in Vienna. Rory, as we were saying, everyone gets nervous when bombs hit nuclear facilities, or even near them, but it does seem that the damage so far has been fairly limited.
Well, yeah, one of the key responsibilities of the IAEA is nuclear safety. And when you are raining bombs down on nuclear facilities, there is the capability, the capacity for things to go pretty badly very quickly. And there is relief in as much as the two attacks that have been carried out by the Israeli air force so far, which took place on Friday on two of Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities at Natanz and Isfahan, do not seem thus far to have resulted in any radiation levels rising outside of those facilities. There has been damage certainly to the Natanz one and the Isfahan one. The Natanz one, at the surface level, several buildings have been destroyed, including the energy supply buildings for the main cascade halls which are subterranean, down below ground. And the IAEA assesses that while there's no elevated radiation levels above ground, it's probably a different picture down below where it thinks that yes, there are heightened radiation levels and chemical leaks down there with uranium vapors or gases in the air. The kind of thing that you really do not want to be ingesting, swallowing, or breathing in, but not severe enough that they can't be mitigated by wearing the right protective equipment. That was the assessment from the IAEA. IAEA so far, for which is Iran's most sophisticated and best protected uranium enrichment facility, is buried deep beneath a mountain near the city of KM that has not been attacked yet. But Rafael Grossi, who's the IAEA's director general, said that no nuclear facility anywhere at any time should be attacked because it is just too dangerous. And he said that he would be on hand to negotiate, to travel, to lend a hand if it was necessary.
But there was criticism of him and of the IAEA by the Iranians who have basically said that it should have done more. The IAEA should have done more to prevent this kind of attack happening in the first place. We urged in this meeting the board of governors and the IEA not to allow their initial failure to prevent aggression to be followed by subsequent failure and to take a strong and effective remedial action. The board must condemn Israeli aggression in its strongest terms and hold it accountable.
Now, it wasn't just the Iranians who are criticizing Grossi and the IAEA. We heard similar sentiments from the Venezuelan ambassador here who was talking on behalf of Iran's other allies, so including Russia and including Cuba. And she was saying that essentially that Grossi had been talking about these attacks but not naming Israel as the aggressor, and that she said was noted and reflected back to the IAEA. Rory Chalins there, covering that meeting for us in Vienna. Thank you very much, Rory. Make sure to subscribe to our channel to get the latest news from Al Jazeera.