Past masters at playing cat and mouse games with the West, the Iranian regime’s customary tactics may be about to backfire. For years, a pattern has been observed in the interactions between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Iranian officials have sometimes invited IAEA leaders like Rafael Grossi – the current director general, to Tehran before important meetings, such as those of the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors, to discuss issues and potentially influence perceptions or decisions. The mullahs do not want the IAEA’s governors to table a resolution condemning their theocratic regime for a lack of cooperation.

That would be a dangerous development, particularly with the imminent arrival of Donald Trump in the White House. There is an IAEA governors meeting scheduled to take place in Vienna in November. Grossi has acknowledged some nations were considering acting against Iran. Mohammad Eslami, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, has warned the IAEA’s board of governors against a critical resolution. He stated: “We have repeatedly said any resolution seeking to intervene in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear affairs will be definitely followed by immediate reciprocal steps and we will not allow them to (exert) this kind of pressure”. His warning is unlikely to worry Trump.

The 47^th president-elect is renowned for his hardline on Iran, having unilaterally withdrawn America from Barack Obama’s deeply flawed Iran nuclear deal in 2018, which he described as “the worst deal in American history”. Trump then imposed a ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions campaign on Iran and further outraged the mullahs by ordering the drone strike that killed General Qassem Soleimani, leader of their extra-territorial terrorist Quds Force, an offshoot of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which Trump also designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 2019. Trump has appointed the Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a hardliner renowned for his attacks on the mullahs’ regime, as his Secretary of State.

There is growing awareness that Tehran uses the routine meetings with Rafael Grossi strategically to gain leverage with the IAEA or with Western countries involved in the nuclear negotiations. The IAEA’s role is to ensure compliance with nuclear agreements and provide reports on Iran’s adherence or violations under the terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to which Iran is a signatory. Diplomatic engagements with the IAEA are a key part of this process. The practice of rushing to invite the IAEA to Tehran immediately prior to board meetings in Vienna has become transparent and increasingly recognized as a repetitive pattern. While it is important for the IAEA to maintain its objectivity and independence while dealing with such diplomatic interactions, clarity and rigorous verification remain crucial to assessing the true state of Iran’s nuclear activities. The IAEA’s head has for months sought progress with Iran on issues including a push for more monitoring cooperation at nuclear sites and an explanation of uranium traces found at undeclared sites.

Grossi has expressed great concern the Iranian regime has enriched 70 kilograms uranium to 60% purity, a hair’s breadth away from weapons grade and 1,000 kilograms to 20% purity. It is accelerating its development of a nuclear weapon and ballistic missile delivery systems, with the often-stated intention of wiping Israel off the map. Surveillance cameras installed by the IAEA have been disrupted, while Iran has barred access to sites to some of the agency’s most experienced inspectors. But little has come from Grossi’s efforts and with the return of President-elect Donald Trump, it is now widely accepted that the mullahs attempts to conceal their nuclear ambitions will grind to a halt. The IAEA’s governors will surely realise that pledges, threats and assurances routinely provided to Grossi in Tehran are, as usual, meaningless. The regime must be labelled as non-cooperative, triggering international UN action. Iran has, of course, long denied any nuclear-bomb ambitions, saying it is enriching uranium for civilian energy use only.

Unless the UN acts, Israel may take matters into their own hands. The Israelis have successfully eliminated several of the Iranian regime’s top atomic scientists but fear the threat of a nuclear strike is growing almost daily. Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, will not tolerate the idea of a nuclear armed Iran and without active intervention from the West, may take unilateral action to destroy the mullahs’ top-secret, underground nuclear bunkers, triggering regional and perhaps international conflict. Already engulfed in major wars in Gaza and Lebanon, Netanyahu was enraged by Iran’s direct missile attack on Israel. It was only the blunt intervention of President Biden who warned him not to attack the mullahs’ nuclear sites, that stopped such an assault. President Trump may not be so restrained.

It was the main democratic opposition movement – The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) – who first to stunned Western intelligence agencies by revealing the presence of a secret nuclear project in Iran back in 1991. Supporters of the Resistance Units inside the regime have risked their lives ever since to provide constant updates on the mullahs’ belligerent nuclear activities. The Iranian Resistance has revealed details of the Iranian regime’s nuclear weapons programme in over 100 news conferences since 1991, including exposing crucial, secretive sites like Natanz and Arak in 2002. The time has come now for the IAEA to end the Iranian regime’s nuclear cat and mouse game. There can be no more appeasement. The mullahs are determined to build a nuclear weapon to hold the world to threat. The UN must stop them.