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Israel is free to attack in self defence, Netanyahu tells IAEA chief

March 6, 2023 at 11:44 am

Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Mariano Grossi attends the joint meeting of the European Parliament Foreign Relations Committee and the Security and Defense Committee in Brussels, Belgium on January 24, 2023. [Dursun Aydemir – Anadolu Agency]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticised the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, after he said that any attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would be illegal, Sama news agency reported on Sunday.

“Rafael Grossi is a worthy person who made an unworthy remark,” Netanyahu told his cabinet yesterday.

He made his comment after Grossi said on Saturday that, “I think any attack, any military attack on a nuclear facility is outlawed, is out of the normative structures that we all abide by.”

Netanyahu asked what law the IAEA chief was referring to. “Is it permissible for Iran, which openly calls for our destruction, to organise the tools of slaughter for our destruction? Are we forbidden to defend ourselves? We are obviously permitted to do this.”

Last month, US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said that “all options are on the table” against Iran. “Israel can and should do whatever they need to deal with it, and we have got their back.”

READ: Iran responds to reported discovery of its 84% enriched uranium