Tehran: Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has criticized the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for his continued politically motivated and biased stance towards Iran's peaceful nuclear program, warning that Rafael Grossi is squandering the credibility of the Agency.

According to Islamic Republic News Agency, Baqaei explained Grossi's unprofessional behavior concerning Iran, saying the IAEA falls victim to his political agenda, a move transforming the Agency into a tool for rationalizing and facilitating aggression. 'The IAEA Director General has transformed an institution, whose authority rests on technical expertise, impartiality, and independence, into a link in a chain connecting technical reporting to political justification, and political justification to war,' he said.

He pointed to the US-Israeli-imposed war under the pretext of Iran's nuclear program, and the Agency's inaction over the illegal aggression, saying 'When IAEA reports become raw material for threat narratives and for the construction of a political and legal case against a country, the line between technical oversight and laying the groundwork for military aggression becomes dangerously blurred.'

The spokesperson warned that Grossi's stance over Iran was 'not merely a matter of reputational harm to the Agency or its Director General,' but it squandered 'the IAEA's most valuable asset - its credibility as an impartial and independent authority.' Baqaei noted in his post that once that credibility is subordinated to political agendas, the Agency risks becoming an instrument for rationalizing and facilitating aggression.

According to him, the existing scenario is not only 'a profound institutional failure, but has made the Agency complicit in the political preparation of an unlawful war of choice-one waged in furtherance of the interests and ambitions of a genocidal regime that remains the only obstacle to a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.'

He also questioned the integrity of the IAEA in the face of the US-Israeli war on Iran that is a party to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), saying 'an institution entrusted with contributing to international peace and security should never become part of the machinery used to manufacture a pretext for war.'

Baqaei said the accountability of war or aggression 'cannot be limited to those who issue the orders or physically carry out unlawful attacks,' but 'it must also extend to those who serve as the aggressors' enablers and apologists, and whose conduct knowingly contributes to the political, legal, or evidentiary foundations on which aggression is justified.' 'Those who choose to rationalize or legitimize aggression by presenting contested assessments as authoritative grounds for coercive action cannot wash their hands of the consequences,' he taunted, addressing Grossi.