Bombs Can’t Resolve Iran's Atomic Ambitions | UN Nuclear Watchdog

The United Nations nuclear watchdog said military action alone won’t be able to resolve ambiguity over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“At some point, this will come to an end,” International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “When that happens, you will still have a question mark. We will have to go back to the negotiating table.”

With the IAEA’s board meeting this week in Vienna, Grossi said earlier in the day he was frustrated by the collapse of diplomacy with Iran. He’d met with envoys from Iran and the US the week before in an effort to avert military action.

The career diplomat from Argentina reiterated that the majority of airstrikes over the last three days didn’t concentrate on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Satellite images reviewed by the IAEA indicate that only Iran’s uranium-enrichment site in Natanz showed indications of new damage, Grossi said. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi spoke to Bloomberg's Katie Greifeld. The IAEA chief reiterated “frustration” with the failure of diplomacy in Iran. He pointed to proposals he’d floated to limit Iran’s nuclear program that had “started to acquire some momentum” before hostilities began.

“We are, quite understandably, feeling a strong sense of frustration,” Grossi told the IAEA’s board earlier, while urging all sides in the conflict to exercise the “utmost restraint.”