Iran warns against politicized use of IAEA to justify military aggression

Iran has warned against the politicized use of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), saying the agency's director general is undermining its impartiality and independence and turning technical reports into political justification for military aggression.

In a post on his X account on Friday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the IAEA’s authority rests on technical expertise, impartiality, and independence.

However, he said, the agency’s director general has transformed it into a link in a chain connecting technical reporting to political justification, and political justification to war.

“When IAEA reports become raw material for threat narratives and for the construction of a political and legal case against a country, the line between technical oversight and laying the groundwork for military aggression becomes dangerously blurred,” he wrote.

The Iranian spokesperson warned that the issue goes beyond “reputational harm” to the UN nuclear agency or its director general, saying, “The IAEA’s most valuable asset - its credibility as an impartial and independent authority - is being squandered.”

Baghaei said that once the agency’s credibility is subordinated to political agendas, it could become an instrument for rationalizing and facilitating aggression, describing this as a serious institutional failure.

More seriously, he added, the agency has become involved in the political groundwork for an unlawful war of choice pursued in the interests and ambitions of a “genocidal regime”, which remains the only obstacle to a region free of weapons of mass destruction.

“An institution entrusted with contributing to international peace and security should never become part of the machinery used to manufacture a pretext for war,” the Iranian diplomat emphasized.

He insisted that accountability for military aggression and war crimes should not be limited to those who order or physically carry out unlawful attacks.

“It must also extend to those who serve as the aggressors’ enablers and apologists, and whose conduct knowingly contributes to the political, legal, or evidentiary foundations on which aggression is justified,” Baghaei said.

He warned that those who present contested assessments as authoritative grounds for coercive action cannot distance themselves from the consequences of the aggression they help justify.

Baghaei’s post came after the United Nations nuclear watchdog claimed on Thursday it has observed construction activity at Iran’s Mount Kolang (Pickaxe) near Natanz nuclear enrichment facility in central Iran.

Rafael Grossi said new movement at the complex had been spotted in remote imagery.

“There are some indications that there is movement around this construction site,” Grossi told Bloomberg Television.

“We don’t have any concrete information as to activities that may be taking place there,” he added.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to launch attacks against the site as observers see the IAEA's reporting as a justification for such acts of aggression, as it was the case for the June 2025 US-Israeli attacks on Iran's safeguarded peaceful nuclear facilities, which came after a Board of Governors' resolution.

The IAEA also on Wednesday passed an anti-Iran resolution, drafted by the United States, Britain, France, and Germany, with 23 votes in favor. Three nations, Russia, China, and Niger, voted against it, while eight abstained.

Iran slams IAEA resolution, warns it facilitates ‘ultimate collapse’ of non-proliferation regime

Tehran placed the blame for the current nuclear standoff squarely on the United States and Israel, citing their wars of aggression against the country.

The text requests the IAEA chief to report Iran to the UN Security Council and the General Assembly, marking the first time in 20 years that Tehran has been referred to the council over its nuclear obligations.

In a statement released on X, Iran’s mission to the UN in Vienna slammed the non-consensual adoption of the resolution, arguing that it "facilitates further erosion and ultimate collapse of the proliferation regime as a whole."

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