Macron meets IAEA chief Rafael Grossi in Paris after NATO summit

Published on
26/06/2025 – 0:55 GMT+2

The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog visited the Elysee Palace in the French capital, Paris, on Wednesday to meet with President Emmanuel Macron.

The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, and Macron did not address media inside the meeting room.

The meeting comes after Macron attended the annual NATO leaders’ summit – taking place this year in The Hague – where the 32 heads of states of the alliance endorsed a proposal to increase defence expenditure from 2% of GDP to 5% by 2035.

The summit took place against a backdrop of global crisis, with Russia’s more than three-year full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues to rage and tensions in the Middle East continue to soar.

Just a few days before the summit, US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, marking an end to their 12-days of cross border aerial attacks.

Israel started the war with Iran as it launched a surprise offensive – dubbed ‘Operation Rising Lion’ – where they targeted a slew of Iranian military targets, and most importantly, sought to dismantle their nuclear programme.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Tehran – whose nuclear programme has been rapidly advancing in recent years – would be capable of developing a nuclear warhead within a “very short amount of time”, adding that the country possesses an alarming stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Tensions spiked after US President Donald Trump announced that Washington had directly attacked Iran’s nuclear sites on 21 June. Trump claimed to have “obliterated” Tehran’s nuclear project with a series of attacks on its three main facilities of Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

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

A report released by the US Defence Intelligence Agency on Tuesday however suggested that Washington’s attacks had only delivered a minor setback in Iran’s nuclear programme, adding that Iran could fully rebuild within months.

The White House has slammed the report as “flat out wrong” and stressed that its findings are a “clear attempt to demean (president) Trump”.

At the summit, Macron told reporters he would discuss his assessment of damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities, after the strikes by the US and Israel, with Grossi during the meeting.

In a post on X, the French president reiterated Paris’ commitment to the UN’s nuclear watchdog, as he urged Iran to allow the IAEA to resume its mission in the country. The Iranian parliament had approved a bill recently to suspend all cooperation with the agency.

The pair also reportedly addressed ways to strengthen compliance with international non-proliferation standards.

Grossi thanked the French leader for his continued support in a post on X after Macron reaffirmed his support for IAEA in its efforts to ensure nuclear safety and security worldwide.

Additional sources • AP