Iran: Strikes Targeted Nuke Facility   03/02 06:17

   Iran's Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday 
alleged that airstrikes by the United States and Israel targeted the Natanz 
enrichment facility in his country.

   VIENNA (AP) -- Iran's Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency 
on Monday alleged that airstrikes by the United States and Israel targeted the 
Natanz enrichment facility in his country.

   That contradicts an assessment by the U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael 
Grossi who said that "up to now" the agency has "no indication" that nuclear 
facilities have been hit in Iran.

   "Again they attacked Iran's peaceful safeguarded nuclear facilities 
yesterday. Their justification that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons is 
simply a big lie," Reza Najafi told reporters at the IAEA headquarters in 
Vienna, where a special session of the Board of Governors is being held at the 
request of Russia.

   When asked by a reporter which nuclear facility he was referring to, Najafi 
replied "Natanz."

   The Natanz site, some 220 kilometers (135 miles) south of the capital, is a 
mix of above- and below-ground laboratories that did the majority of Iran's 
uranium enrichment.

   Before the war, the IAEA said Iran used advanced centrifuges there to enrich 
uranium up to 60% -- a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%. 
Some of the material is presumed to have been onsite when the entire complex 
was attacked last June.

   The main above-ground enrichment building at Natanz was known as the Pilot 
Fuel Enrichment Plant. Israel hit the building June 13, leaving it 
"functionally destroyed," and seriously damaging underground halls holding 
cascades of centrifuges, the IAEA's director-general, Rafael Grossi, said at 
the time. A U.S. follow-up attack on June 22 hit Natanz's underground 
facilities with bunker-busting bombs, likely decimating what remained.

   IAEA says "up to now" no nuclear installations hit in Iran

   Addressing the special session of the Board of Governors, IAEA chief Rafael 
Mariano Grossi said that "up to now" the International Atomic Energy Agency has 
"no indication that any of the nuclear installations, including the Bushehr 
Nuclear Power Plant, the Tehran Research Reactor or other nuclear fuel cycle 
facilities" in Iran have been damaged or hit.

   He added that the IAEA continues to try to contact the Iranian nuclear 
regulatory authorities via the IAEA's own Incident and Emergency Center "with 
no response so far," given the limitations in communications caused by the 
conflict.

   Grossi urged military restraint, warning that Iran and many other countries 
in the region that have been targeted militarily have "operational nuclear 
power plants and nuclear research reactors, as well as associated fuel storage 
sites, increasing the threat to nuclear safety."

   He added that so far "no elevation of radiation levels above the usual 
background levels has been detected in countries bordering Iran."

   Najafi attacks Trump

   Najafi added that the U.S. uses "deception and disinformation to invade 
other countries." He said that the war was launched by U.S. President Donald 
Trump, "who attempts to portray himself as a man of peace and asking for Nobel 
Peace Prize. Even when they talk about peace, it is a lie. And if they call for 
diplomacy, it's about deception" he said.

   Najafi said that the strikes against his country are "unlawful, criminal and 
brutal" and called on states of the 35-member IAEA Board of Governors to 
"categorically condemn" the attacks.