Iran 'leaks' documents to discredit nuclear chief Grossi as it faces IAEA, sanctions threats
Grossi has - though slowly - demanded answers from Iran to explain illicit nuclear materials and refusing to accept partial answers that he called "not credible."
Leaking materials it obtained, possibly by hacking, to the Iran View 24 outlet, Iran lashed out on Thursday with a personal attack on both IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi and Israeli Permanent Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency Merav Zafary-Odiz.
Facing likely condemnation and possibly eventually global snapback sanctions against it from a mix of the IAEA Board of Governors, key European countries who are IAEA members, and the UN Security Council, Tehran is seeking to discredit Grossi and his recent negative reports against it.
Although the US and Israel have sometimes viewed Grossi as too neutral regarding the Islamic Republic and too unwilling to call it out for nuclear violations, Iran has viewed Grossi as increasingly siding with Israel.
The core point of anger for Tehran against Grossi is that once he took over the IAEA in late 2019, he started to pressure it harder about the military aspects of its nuclear program, which the Mossad revealed when it seized Iran's nuclear archives in 2018.
Grossi's predecessor, Yukiya Amano, had been much more passive in addressing these allegations, receiving documents from the Mossad in mid-2018, but not taking almost any actions to follow up on the documents and allegations for several months, and not visiting certain illicit undeclared nuclear sites until almost mid-2019.
Grossi has taken an increasingly tough stance on Iran's nuclear capabilities, explanations
In contrast, Grossi has, though slowly, demanded answers from Iran to explain illicit nuclear materials the IAEA found at sites like Turquzabad, as well as other issues at the Varamin and Marivan sites, refusing to accept partial answers that he called "not credible."All of this, along with the Trump administration and Israel's new pressure on Tehran, as well as that the chance to snapback sanctions on Iran will expire in October, has led to an escalation with the Islamic Republic.
Despite its claims to have smoking gun evidence against Israel and Grossi, the documents leaked to Iran View 24 are either publicly available records regarding Grossi's visits to Israel, while he also visits Tehran, or letters and emails between him and Zafary-Odiz to hold routine consultations.
There are also personal emails from Zafary-Odiz, which may have been hacked, about her activities in favor of Israel's positions and against Iran's positions - standard activities for an Israeli diplomat.
Nothing in the report actually shows that Grossi departed from his duty to neutrally analyze evidence brought to his attention by all parties.
Also, Grossi has been clear that the IAEA did not just accept the Mossad documents, but performed its own independent review and checks.
