Nuclear watchdog chief vying for UN leadership role

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi has said his commitment to engaging all leaders may help resolve conflicts

The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi has said he would like to become the next UN Secretary-General to restore the organization’s credibility and effectiveness.

In an exclusive interview with RT on Friday, Grossi, who is in Moscow for the Global Atomic Forum, stated that the many military conflicts currently raging across the globe seem to have one thing in common – the “UN is absent” from them as far as meaningful peace efforts are concerned.

”I think that we have to restore the ability of the United Nations to be part of the solution” to military conflagrations, the IAEA chief argued. He suggested that his commitment to maintaining dialogue with all parties in any given conflict, as opposed to self-righteous finger-pointing, could help achieve this goal.

Grossi noted that he has “been in constant dialogue with [Russian] President Vladimir Putin” since 2022, “when many people in the West” dismissed the very idea of having a conversation with him due to the Ukraine conflict.

When asked about Ukrainian attacks on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, which has been under Russian control since 2022, Grossi said that “tension there is palpable.” The official, who has visited the facility several times himself, noted that “for more than three years, [the IAEA has] had experts that are living there, at the plant.”

Given the fact that the power plant contains “six big nuclear reactors that are situated almost at the contact line, front line,” the watchdog is “trying to manage the situation so we can avoid a nuclear accident before a ceasefire [or] a peace agreement” is agreed upon, he clarified.

Grossi also dismissed Iranian allegations that the IAEA had effectively sided with the US and Israel as they conducted massive airstrikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities earlier this year. He insisted that the organization has sought to maintain “dialogue among [the] belligerents.”

The official emphasized that “we don’t want to see attacks on nuclear facilities of any kind. There is no ambiguity.”

Grossi also warned against sidelining international bodies such as the IAEA as this risks undermining their mandate to “work with everybody.”