Emmanuel Macron meets IAEA chief Rafael Grossi at the Elysee Palace after returning from NATO summit

Published on 26/06/2025 - 0:55 GMT+2

The caput of the United Nations' atomic watchdog visited the Elysee Palace successful the French capital, Paris, connected Wednesday to conscionable with President Emmanuel Macron.

The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, and Macron did not code media wrong the gathering room.

The gathering comes aft Macron attended the yearly NATO leaders’ acme – taking spot this twelvemonth successful The Hague – wherever the 32 heads of states of the confederation endorsed a connection to summation defence expenditure from 2% of GDP to 5% by 2035.

The acme took spot against a backdrop of planetary crisis, with Russia’s much than three-year full-scale penetration of Ukraine continues to rage and tensions successful the Middle East proceed to soar.

Just a fewer days earlier the summit, US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire betwixt Israel and Iran, marking an extremity to their 12-days of transverse borderline aerial attacks.

Israel started the warfare with Iran arsenic it launched a astonishment violative – dubbed ‘Operation Rising Lion’ – wherever they targeted a slew of Iranian subject targets, and astir importantly, sought to dismantle their atomic programme.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Tehran – whose atomic programme has been rapidly advancing successful caller years – would beryllium susceptible of processing a atomic warhead wrong a “very abbreviated magnitude of time”, adding that the state possesses an alarming stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Tensions spiked aft US President Donald Trump announced that Washington had straight attacked Iran’s atomic sites connected 21 June. Trump claimed to person “obliterated” Tehran’s atomic task with a bid of attacks connected its 3 main facilities of Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

The 47th US president said Washington carried retired a precise cognition involving their top-grade B-2 stealth bombers which unloaded fourteen of the US’ mighty 30,000 lb (13,600 kg) bunker buster bombs.

A study released by the US Defence Intelligence Agency connected Tuesday nevertheless suggested that Washington’s attacks had lone delivered a insignificant setback successful Iran’s atomic programme, adding that Iran could afloat rebuild wrong months.

The White House has slammed the study arsenic “flat retired wrong” and stressed that its findings are a “clear effort to demean (president) Trump”.

At the summit, Macron told reporters helium would sermon his appraisal of harm to Iran's atomic facilities, aft the strikes by the US and Israel, with Grossi during the meeting.

In a station connected X, the French president reiterated Paris’ committedness to the UN’s atomic watchdog, arsenic helium urged Iran to let the IAEA to resume its ngo successful the country. The Iranian parliament had approved a measure precocious to suspend each practice with the agency.

The brace besides reportedly addressed ways to fortify compliance with planetary non-proliferation standards.

Grossi thanked the French person for his continued enactment successful a station connected X aft Macron reaffirmed his enactment for IAEA successful its efforts to guarantee atomic information and information worldwide.