IAEA chief says data obtained by Iran ‘appear to refer’ to Israeli nuclear analysis web site | EUROtoday

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency stated Monday that the knowledge Iran claimed it seized concerning Israel’s nuclear program “seems to refer” to the nation’s Soreq Nuclear Research Center, the primary acknowledgment exterior of Tehran of the theft.

The workplace of Israel’s prime minister had no fast response on the remarks by IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, who spoke throughout a information convention in Vienna.

The alleged theft comes at a time of renewed tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, which enriches uranium a brief, technical step away from weapons-grade ranges and appears poised to reject a U.S. proposal over a attainable deal on its atomic program.

“We have seen some reports in the press. We haven’t had any official communication about this,” Grossi told reporters. “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 did not elaborate on where he received his information, though the IAEA maintains a confidential reporting system for nations to report security incidents involving their nuclear programs.

Soreq, located 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Tel Aviv, is a national laboratory for nuclear science established in Israel in 1958, engaged in nuclear science, radiation safety and applied physics.

The IAEA has so-called “item-specific safeguards agreements” with Israel, Pakistan and India, all nations that aren’t occasion to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Under Israel’s settlement, the IAEA screens Soreq however has no entry to Israel’s nuclear facility at Dimona, believed to supply the gasoline for Israel’s undeclared nuclear weapons program.

Over the weekend Iranian state tv and later the nation’s intelligence minister claimed with out providing proof that Tehran seized an “important treasury” of data concerning Israel’s nuclear program.

Israel, whose undeclared atomic weapons program makes it the one nation within the Mideast with nuclear bombs, has not acknowledged any such Iranian operation focusing on it — although there have been arrests of Israelis allegedly spying for Tehran amid the Israel-Hamas battle within the Gaza Strip.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib claimed hundreds of pages of paperwork had been obtained which might be made public quickly. Among them had been paperwork associated to the U.S., Europe and different nations which, he claimed, had been obtained via “infiltration” and “access to the sources.”

He didn’t elaborate on the strategies used. However, Khatib, a Shiite cleric, was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2022 over directing “cyber espionage and ransomware attacks in support of Iran’s political goals.”

For Iran, the declare could also be designed to point out the general public that the theocracy was in a position to reply to a 2018 Israeli operation that spirited out what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a “half ton” of paperwork associated to Iran’s program.

That Israeli announcement got here simply earlier than President Donald Trump in his first time period unilaterally withdrew America from Iran’s 2015 nuclear cope with world powers, which tremendously restricted its program in alternate for the lifting of financial sanctions.

This week, Western nations are anticipate to go earlier than the IAEA’s Board of Governors with a proposal to seek out Iran in noncompliance with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog. It could possibly be the primary time in a long time — and certain would kick the problem to the U.N. Security Council.

That might see one of many Western nations concerned within the 2015 nuclear deal invoke the so-called “snapback” of U.N. sanctions on the Islamic Republic. The authority to revive these sanctions by the criticism of any member of the unique 2015 nuclear deal expires in October — placing the West on a clock to exert strain on Tehran over its program earlier than shedding that energy.

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Associated Press author Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press receives assist for nuclear safety protection from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely accountable for all content material.

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Additional AP protection of the nuclear panorama: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/