IAEA prioritises preventing nuclear accident amid Russia-Ukraine conflict

Vienna (ANTARA) - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi has stated that the agency can only name the party responsible for attacks on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) if it has incontrovertible evidence. “If we had incontrovertible evidence, we could state it. However, we must understand that this is a war, and in war there are very opposing views on an event,” Grossi said in an interview with RIA Novosti. Grossi stressed that the IAEA’s main objective is to prevent a nuclear accident. “Of course, this is a very fine line. Someone once said that in international organisations, sometimes you have to make all parties equally dissatisfied,” he said. According to Grossi, the step of assigning blame presents a particular challenge for the IAEA as an independent body. “Entering the realm of assigning blame presents a challenge for us as an independent body because we must have all the elements of proof that this is indeed the case. In this era of drone warfare, it is very difficult. The remaining debris does not allow us to identify the origin of the attack,” he explained. He added that a high degree of caution and vigilance is required in making assessments. “I know that some parties are sometimes a little disappointed with this approach, but we hope they can understand it,” Grossi said.