By James Crisp
In the days after Israel’s war on Iran and the US air strikes on three nuclear sites, the Islamic Republic’s most hard-line newspaper called for the trial and execution of the man they held responsible for the conflict.
But it was not Benjamin Netanyahu or Donald Trump in the crosshairs of Kayhan, which is said to be supervised by the regime.
Instead, it was Rafael Grossi, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief, whose alarming report on Iran’s nuclear expansion on May 31 lit the touchpaper that exploded into 12 days of war.
Many, including Mr Grossi himself, have said he has his sights set on becoming the next secretary-general of the United Nations.
But he risks becoming more famous as the man caught in the crossfire between Mr Trump, Mr Netanyahu and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s smear campaign against Mr Grossi includes accusing him of being an Israeli spy.
Kayhan said: “It should therefore be officially announced that he will be tried and executed upon arrival in Iran for spying for the Mossad and participating in the murder of the oppressed people of our country.”
Mr Grossi is being set up to take the blame if Iran pulls out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and accelerates efforts to get nuclear weapons.
Such a move risks plunging the region into an apocalyptic conflict.
It is an invidious position for any diplomat to find themselves in, particularly one with his eye on the top job in New York.
The 64-year-old polyglot said his “work” with the UN agency’s nuclear inspectors is his campaign to succeed Antonio Guterres in 2027.
That lofty ambition now hangs in the balance as delicately as peace in the Middle East.
Who is Grossi?
Born to an Italian immigrant family in Buenos Aires, Mr Grossi dedicated his professional life to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. In 2019, he became the first Latin American to head the Vienna-headquartered IAEA.
When Russia occupied the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after invading Ukraine in 2022, there were fears of another Chernobyl. Mr Grossi, a well-dressed former Argentine ambassador to Austria, took control.
William Alberque, of the Pacific Forum think tank and a former director of Nato’s Arms Control Centre, said: “He personally went to the plant when it was under fire and put his life on the line to say we’ve got to protect this facility.
“Grossi found a way to get involved without having to take either side in a way that even the Russians had to support.”
The self-confessed workaholic has now made five trips to the plant, which, thanks to his diplomatic efforts with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, has been monitored by the IAEA ever since.
A well-dressed family man who limits his taste for Malbec to the weekends, he is armed with an enviable contact book of world leaders.
The Telegraph understands that Grossi has impressed EU leaders with his performance on the Iran file, particularly Germany.
German officials with close knowledge of the IAEA said Grossi had done an “excellent” job, singling out his efforts to verify Iran’s nuclear safeguards. They also praised his “tireless” work ethic.
There was speculation Mr Trump, and even Putin, could back him as UN boss.
Mr Grossi recently confessed his ambition to run for the role.
‘Absent from resolution’
He told the FT: “The UN is in a very bad place at the moment. The original idea is valid, but it has become big and bureaucratised and absent from the resolution of major international crises. It doesn’t need to be like that.”
All five permanent Security Council members must back a candidate before they can be approved by the General Assembly for a five-year term.
But Russia and China, two permanent members of the Council with France, Britain and the US, are allies of Iran, which is determined to prevent Mr Grossi from getting the job.
Mr Trump pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear deal, which offered sanctions relief in exchange for nuclear restrictions, a year before Mr Grossi became IAEA boss.
Tehran accelerated its uranium enrichment and limited IAEA access to its nuclear programme. Relations were strained.
They broke down after an IAEA report said Iran had a 400kg stock of uranium enriched to 60 per cent purity, a short step from the 90 per cent level needed for a nuclear bomb.
A day after the IAEA’s board declared Iran in violation of treaty obligations on June 12, Israel attacked.
A ceasefire ended the fighting after 12 days but Iran’s war on the IAEA continues. It has banned Mr Grossi and the IAEA, rejecting his requests to visit the three sites bombed by the US.
On Wednesday, Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s president, ordered a halt on cooperation with the IAEA.
Mr Pezeshkian told Emmanuel Macron this week that Mr Grossi’s “destructive” behaviour was to blame. The foreign ministry said his “interviews justify attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities”.
The Kayhan newspaper claimed to have unspecified documents proving that he was an Israeli agent and demanded that he “be tried and executed” for “participating in the murder of the oppressed people of our country”.
It led to an outpouring of support for Mr Grossi from Britain, France, Germany, the EU and the US.
But it also triggered fears that the IAEA boss could become an obstacle to a new Iran deal.
An agreement would be almost certain to involve IAEA inspectors because no other international organisation has the expertise and experience to monitor its implementation.
As things stand, Iran is refusing to meet with US negotiators unless Mr Trump rules out any further strikes.
Ellie Geranmayeh, an Iran expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said a compromise could be found to save Tehran’s blushes to clinch the deal.
But that would not stop Iran trying to block Mr Grossi’s appointment as UN boss, a post that the pariah state sees as a valuable interlocutor.
Ms Geranmayeh: “I think the Iranian game plan is to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
Mr Alberque dismissed Tehran’s slurs as being “like saying that the private detective that caught you cheating on your wife is to blame for you cheating on your wife”.
He said: “This could be a decisive few weeks in that campaign, because if he handles it with diplomacy and dignity, which he has so far, I don’t think this hurts him at all.”
For years, Iran has leveraged the threat of it obtaining nuclear weapons in international negotiations to try and lift the sanctions that have crippled its economy.
Now it faces a decision. Is its best chance of survival doing a deal or risking a war with a dominant Israel in a race to get the bomb?
Israel’s strikes have exposed Iran’s weakness and the regime is teetering after years of protests against the compulsory wearing of the hijab and the failing economy.
Accusing Mr Grossi of being a spy shifts blame for the Israeli attacks away from Iran’s security apparatus, which was badly exposed in the 12 day war.
Ms Geranmayeh said the attacks on Mr Grossi were designed to discredit the IAEA as an impartial organisation and justify pulling out of the NPT. If it did so, Iran would become only the second country after North Korea to quit the NPT and “go dark” on its nuclear programme.
She added: “The idea is that Israel and the US are playing outside of the bounds of international norms and this is a watershed moment. So [Iran think] we’re going to operate with the laws of the jungle, just like the Israelis and the US.”