Rafael Grossi
Rafael GrossiLev Radin/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, on Monday pushed back on Israel’s claims that his agency capitulated to Iranian pressure when it closed two probes related to enriched uranium found in Iran, The Associated Press reports.

Grossi said that the IAEA will “never politicize” its work in Iran and insisted that his agency has been “very fair but firm.”

The IAEA said last week in two confidential quarterly reports that inspectors no longer had questions on uranium particles found to be enriched to 83.7% at its underground Fordow facility.

The reports also said investigators also have closed off their investigation of traces of man-made uranium found at Marivan, near the city of Abadeh, some 525 kilometers southeast of Tehran.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday commented on the decision and said at a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, “Iran is continuing to lie to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The agency’s capitulation to Iranian pressure is a black stain on its record.”

“If the IAEA becomes a political organization, then its oversight activity in Iran is without significance, as will be its reports on Iran’s nuclear activity,” Netanyahu added.

Asked on Monday about that criticism, Grossi said that his agency’s work is “neutral, it is impartial, it is technical.”

“We will always say things as they are,” Grossi told reporters, according to AP. He added that he would “never enter into a polemic” with the head of government of a member of the IAEA.

“We never politicize. We have our standards and apply them always,” he said. “The politicization is in the eye of the beholder.”

Last Thursday, before Netanyahu’s comments, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat said in a statement that the explanations provided by Iran for the presence of nuclear material at the Marivan site are “not reliable or technically possible.”

The IAEA reports come as tensions between Iran and the West have escalated over its nuclear program.

The 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers hit a snag in 2018, when then-US President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal and reimposed sanctions on Iran.

Iran, in turn, began to scale back its compliance with the deal.

President Joe Biden has sought to revive the deal, but those efforts have been stalled since September.

At that time, Iran submitted a response to a European Union proposal to revive the deal. A senior Biden administration official said the Iranian response "is not at all encouraging.” A US official later said that the efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have “hit a wall” because of Iran's insistence on the closure of the UN nuclear watchdog's investigations.