In an increasingly lawless world, one principle remains
that it's a disaster for the number of nuclear armed powers to grow.
But that principle is being tested like never before.
There are fears a wounded Iranian regime will now push to build a bomb as soon as possible.
And Iran's neighbors could race to follow suit.
If a nuclear arms race begins, it's the job of Rafael Mariano Grossi to sound the alarm.
He's Director General of the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
I met him at his headquarters in Vienna to ask:
Is the world standing on the edge of a nuclear precipice?
Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, welcome to Inside Geopolitics.
Thank you for having me.
So, there are a lot of reasons to worry about events in Iran right now.
But I guess top of mind for many is 440 kilos of highly enriched uranium
that your agency estimated was there.
Do you know where that uranium is now?
Well, we were inspecting that material as part of our regular program of inspections in Iran.
And we were actually inspecting up to just a few days before the 12-day war.
So our estimations were quite accurate to the gram.
We don't know now, and this is why we need to go back.
I think the overall evaluation, assessment is that this material is where it was at that time.