A senior Iranian lawmaker on Saturday accused International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors of hiding surveillance microchips in their shoes during visits to Iran’s nuclear sites.
"Why is it that every time these inspectors enter our nuclear facilities, and we conduct body checks, we find microchips in their shoes?" the deputy chairman of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee said.
"It is a fact, not a slogan, that these inspectors are spies," Mahmoud Nabavian said in remarks published by Fars News Agency.
He accused the UN nuclear watchdog of repeatedly passing classified information to foreign governments. "How did Iran’s nuclear installations, such as those in Natanz, become known to the outside world?"
“They know because they are told—by their satellites, their spies, and the agency itself,” he added.
Nabavian said IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi had directly shared Iranian data with Western states. "Even now, they themselves admit all our main statistics and information are given to them by Mr. Grossi.”
Iran’s parliament in late June approved a bill to suspend the country’s cooperation with the IAEA, less than a day into a ceasefire with Israel following 12 days of deadly war.
Parliament members also criticized the IAEA and Grossi, accusing the agency of providing “false reports, politically biased behavior, and facilitating espionage against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.”
The hardliners and Kayhan newspaper, overseen by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, recently called for the arrest and execution of Grossi if he visited Tehran.
