Grossi tells Iran to reopen IAEA access as Western states draft a UN referral

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told a press conference in Vienna on 7 September that the shortest path to a better outcome for Iran is to give his inspectors access to key nuclear sites. He spoke after opening the Board of Governors' regular September meeting at the Vienna International Centre. A draft resolution prepared by the United States, Britain, France and Germany, seen by AFP, asks the board to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for failing to meet its reporting duties.

Grossi said access would have positive repercussions for the Islamic Republic. Asked whether a Security Council referral was the right step, he said his work with Iran continues whatever the board decides. The draft, if adopted later in the week, would instruct him to send the resolution to all IAEA members and to the Security Council and the General Assembly.

What the board is sitting on

The meeting opened at 10 a.m. Central European Summer Time on 7 September in Board Room C and is due to run through 11 September. The published agenda includes the 2024-2025 programme performance report, nuclear safety and security, safeguards staff, North Korea, Syria, Iran, Ukraine, AUKUS nuclear material and the perennial Middle East safeguards item. Grossi's opening statement is on the IAEA site. He also flagged a Syrian safeguards breakthrough, radiation readings in the Gulf that remain at background, and the 70th General Conference in Vienna from 14 to 18 September.

Iran used the nuclear and radiation safety slot to accuse the United States and Israel of attacking safeguarded facilities and, in the delegation's words, of bombing the UN Charter, the IAEA Statute and basic safety rules. The statement referred to strikes in 2026 and, in the English rendering carried by IRNA, 2027. It warned other states that the target could rotate. That is the political weather in which the Western draft is being circulated.

The referral fight is not new. What is new this week is the coincidence of a live draft, a director general who still wants a deal on access, and a region where nuclear sites have already been hit. Grossi's public line is that engagement beats isolation. The four-power draft is the opposite instrument: a paper that moves the file from Vienna to New York.

What a referral would and would not do

A Board of Governors referral does not by itself impose sanctions. It puts Iran's safeguards file onto the Security Council agenda and onto the General Assembly record. What the Council then does depends on the votes of the five permanent members. Russia and China have blocked or diluted earlier attempts. The draft's authors know that. They still want the paper on the table this week.

Grossi's operational problem is simpler. He cannot verify what he cannot see. He has said that giving the agency access would help Iran as well as the board. That is a bargaining sentence. It tells Tehran there is still a Vienna path. It tells the four drafters that he will not campaign for their referral even if they pass it.

The press conference at 12.30 p.m. on 7 September was the first public exchange of the week. The vote, if the draft is tabled, will come later in the sitting. Until then the facts are these. The board is in session. Grossi wants inspectors back in. Four Western members want the Security Council copied. Iran is calling the strikes on its sites a breach of the statute the board is supposed to defend.