MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. Russia doesn't quite understand the role of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its secretariat in the context of the Middle East conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated.

"We probably can’t undo June of last year, when, in the midst of negotiations, the first aggression against Iran occurred. President [US Donald] Trump then announced that all nuclear facilities had been destroyed. Incidentally, I’ll mention here parenthetically: the role of the IAEA and its secretariat is not entirely clear to us, because never, not once, nowhere, in any IAEA report, has there been any indication that Iran might have a nuclear bomb," he said at an embassy roundtable on Ukrainian issues.

Lavrov also noted the words of IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, who stated that, based on his previous reports, "until Iran assists the IAEA in resolving outstanding safeguards issues, the agency cannot guarantee the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program." "And do you know what we’re talking about here? The IAEA insists on access to the nuclear program facilities that the United States bombed in June. Until recently, they insisted on this. Iran, and we ourselves, actually, asked the agency: ‘These facilities are under IAEA control, under IAEA safeguards, but they were bombed, which is strictly prohibited. Couldn’t the IAEA express its point of view regarding this illegal act?’ It didn’t work. The IAEA simply started saying they needed access to these facilities. The very beginning of this process is also being annulled," Lavrov said.

"The facilities that are inviolable by all rules, since they are under IAEA control, were bombed, and the IAEA remains silent, saying, ‘Can I go and see what’s left there, what’s not?’ This is an unprofessional approach, a highly politicized approach," the minister concluded.