JERUSALEM: The head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, made an "unqualified" statement when he said any such attack was prohibited.

Netanyahu has insisted that the option of attacking an Iranian nuclear facility in "self-defense" should be kept open.

Are we not allowed to defend ourselves? Netanyahu said this in the cabinet meeting on Sunday. "Of course, we have permission to do so, and of course, we are doing it. Nothing will stop us from defending our nation and preventing the destruction of the Jewish state by the oppressors.

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A day before Netanyahu's comments, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi was questioned by a reporter about threats from the US and Israel to attack Iran if it did not agree to scale back its nuclear program.

Grossi, who had just met with Iranian officials, announced at a press conference in Tehran that any military attack on the nuclear facility was forbidden and violated regulatory structures that everyone follows.

This rule applies to all nuclear facilities, including Zaporozhye, which is the largest nuclear facility in Europe.

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According to Netanyahu, Israel cannot be subject to such a ban. He claimed that Rafael Grossi is a qualified person who made inappropriate comments.

“What law makes this illegal? Is Iran allowed to defend its weapons of destruction against us despite our public calls for destruction?

Grossi's trip to Tehran appears to have been successful as Iranian officials have once again agreed to give UN watchdogs access to some monitoring equipment at their nuclear facilities.

Additionally, the IAEA was permitted to introduce more verification and monitoring procedures as well as increased inspections at the Fordo nuclear site.

When he arrived back in Vienna on Saturday, Grossi told reporters, "These are not words. It's very specific.

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Tehran has said it has no desire to acquire nuclear weapons. To address concerns about their ability to develop weapons, Iran and the US signed a deal in 2015 restricting their nuclear industry.
including uranium enrichment. In 2018, Washington scrapped the agreement after the then US President Donald Trump made the claim.