conducted and you got the iaea conducted and you got thejob against a the iaea conducted and you gotgainst a romanian candidate. the us was clearly lobbying on your behalf. was that counter—productive, damaging for you? no, not at all and damaging for you? no, not at allandi damaging for you? no, not at all and i would say it was not only the us. it was many other countries. i got a very nice two—thirds of the vote, even more than that so it was not only the us. it was 2a countries out of 35 so it was a nice ample when. you need the finances, the hundreds of millions of dollars to run your budget and i guess it was very good news when it became clear that the us was going to continue its full funding of the iaea. we have seen it cut funding from other agencies like the who. you need to stay on site with the us? you need to stay onside with everybody. in terms of the funding, the issue of funding international organisations has been a subject of dispute. not only now, there have been waves, times, moments when countries we re times, moments when countries were reassessing how they dea

well, my guest is the relatively new iaea chief, rafael grossi. arguments over iran to north korea and saudi arabia, is the iaea another example of a global agency undermined by geopolitical division? rafael grossi in vienna, welcome to hardtalk. hello. good to be with you. it's great to have you on the show. let me begin with a question that arises from your relatively recent appointment. how important is it that you are seen to be in the pocket of no nation, that you are seen to be entirely independent? well, i think that's essential. and i suppose it comes with any prominent international position. countries have their own agendas, their own interests, and they want to make sure that the ones leading these institutions like the iaea are truly independent. in my case, in our case, it's even more so, because unlike other international organisations, we are inspectors. we are the nuclear watchdog. yeah, you absolutely are. so ijust wonder if it was helpful to you when it emerged that the united states had done a little bit of lobbying on your beha

hehe askeded the iaea to play a active role.ubut japan's rerepresentative it's abiding by intnternational law and sharing enough informrmation. >> thehe governmen o oapan has a veven to abide b international law. an sreshatevernformati h in aropriateannerohe inrnatatiolomommuni. >> in february, a japanese panel of experts produced a report saying diluting the waste water and releasing it into the sea was a realistic option. the government plans to make a final decision after hearing from local residents and associations. italians have voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to reduce the number of the country's lawmakers by about a third. as a result the total number of seats in the next election will be decreased by more than 340. the referendum was held over two days through monday, following parliamentary approval of the change initiated by the ruling five star movement. the interior ministry says with all votes counted, about 70% of people voted in favor of the change, while about 30% opposed. turnout was over 51%. fore

he said tehran has a history of not providing full cooperation with the iaea. >>> malta has ratified u.n. treaty banning nuclear weapons meaning the pact needs just five more ratifications to take effect. the announcement marked the 75th anniversary of the united nations. >> today is a special day for malta as we celebrate the 56th anniversary of our independence and the 75th anniversary of the united nations, malta has also became the 45th state to ratify the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons. >> the u.s. treaty will kick in 90 days after it gets 50 ratifications. the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons expressed hope on its website for an early implementation of the treaties. nuclear powers including japan, south korea and other countries protected by have not signed the pact. >>> the united nations promised to boost globe cooperation on issues including the coronavirus. the u.n. general assembly adopted the move on monday. at the same meeting a u.s. official praised the organization but also offered cite sichl. >> the united nations has for too long been r

reporter: on kuwait -- the kuwaiti ambassador this week told the iaea that the kuwaiti government is concerned over iran's constant breaching of the j poa. in your discussions with kuwait have you discussed where they stand as the united states tries to extend -- pres. trump: they just left my office, the oval office we had a good meeting and i think we understand each other very well. about a very excited lot of things happening in the middle east. they are so excited that we signed the first two countries and i think they will end up fairly quickly being a part of it stop i have seven or eight countries that want to be part of it without looking, very easily, very quickly. not only is it happening, it's happening rather easily. that's an easy one. that whole thing is a beautiful puzzle that is coming together very nicely. are talking to them and others about various aspects of the middle east. the you -- the middle east is straightening out with all of this happening. we brought a lot of our troops back and a lot of them are coming back in the very near future. we are out of syria.

just a few days ago the september 4, the iaea with a report out talking about the fact that iran stock enriched uranium, ten times higher under the terms of the nuclear deal >> thanks as always. >>> a historic day in washington and the middle east. the president trump presiding over a peace deal more accurately a normalization between israel and two gulf arab counties, the president along israel prime minister and the foreign ministers of the uae and bahrain marking a pivotal moment for foreign diplomacy for these countries as they agree to recognize israel for the first time ambassador, thank you so much for joining us i'll briefly splay for you what the trump's son-in-law. >> you'll see the beginning of the end israel arab can conflict going on for a long time. >> as someone spent a lot of time in the middle east, is he right? is that this simple? the countries signing it and the countries that have been many con flight with one another including the palestinians and israelis are technically not at peace. >> i'm really glad you framed the question that way, ayman, because it's the ri

his wife and he made the decision and that he's going back to his home state of iaea where he's governors and it seems it's political. he did not close out the possibility of campaigning for president trump and even in our conversation today he seemed to echo trump's blaming of china for this outbreak. >> the chinese system was such that they covered it up and they even penalized the doctors that were pointing it out at the very beginning, so the result was what could have been contained in wuhan ended up becoming worldwide pandemic. >> reporter: poppy, jim, one of the things that i was curious about and i asked the ambassador about this is president trump's handling of president xi because we have seen going back to earlier this year as this outbreak was playing out president trump was calling president xi his friend, a gentleman, a good leader, and now he's transitioned to not criticizing xi directly by name but slamming china as seemingly part of this campaign, and the ambassador said that he thinks that the president went into this trying to have a good friendship, a good relationshi

position is because iran is enriching uranium after the iaea inspections at a higher level, they canignatory to the deal call for these sanctions to go back in place. i think it's also worth noting joe biden has said he would rejoin that agreement of 2015 with much stricter compliance by iran. doesn't want to be seen as weak. but you can see the narrative here and the tensions because of the election cycle that we're in right now, rosemary. >> yeah, absolutely. so, john, in essence then, is this a hollow threat by the u.s. or does it have other means to punish other u.n. members? >> well, iran's saying it's a hollow threat. i'm glad you flagged that. but the u.s. is not shy in using unilateral sanctions. ask huawei and the other chinese companies like wechat, for example. they did so on russia with the pipeline going into germany hitting third parties. so secretary of state mike pompeo is asking the europeans to toe the line while his counterpart, mohammad zarif saying he hasn't read the agreement. on sunday the u.s. put out a statement saying that it will use u.s. domestic authoriti

president -- on kuwait, the ambassador to austria this week told the iaea that the kuwaiti government is very concerned about iran's constant breaching, in your discussions have you doiscussed where they stand as the united states exte extend the sanction and we had a very good meeting. i think we understand each other very well. they're very excited about a lot of things that are happening in the middle east. they're so excited that we signed the first two countries and i think they'll end up fairly quickly being a part of it i would say seven or eight countries that want to be pa part of it without working very quickly, not only is it happening it's happening rather easily we discussed that briefly, that's an easy one believe it or not that whole thing is now a beautiful puzzle coming together very nicely. but we are talking to them and others about various aspects of the middle east. the middle east is straightening out with all this happening. we brought at he of our troops back, lot of them are coming back in the very near future we're out of syria, we kept the oil. i kept the oi

on kuwait, to the ambassador to kuwait to austria this week told the iaea that they are concerned over the constant breaching of the jcpoa and today have you discussed where they stand this week as we go into u.n., as the united states tries to extend sanctions on iran. >> they just left my office, as you know, the oval office and we have a very good meeting with the appemir. they're very excited about a lot of things happening in the middle east. they're so excited that we signed the first two countries and i think they'll end up fairly quickly being a part of it. i would have seven or eight countries that want to be a part of it without even working very easily very quickly. nobody thought this would happen and not only is it happening, it is happening rather easily. we discuss that very briefly because that is an easy one, believe it or not, that whole thing is now a beautiful puzzle coming together very nicely. but we are talking to them and others about various aspects of the middle east. the middle east is straightening out with all of this happening. we've brought a lot of troop

on kuwait, so the ambassador to -- the kuwaiti ambassador to austria this week told the iaea that the very concerned over iran's constant breaching of the jpoa, have you discussed where they stand this week as we go into the u.n. and the united states tries to extend sanctions on iran? >> they just left my office, as you know, the oval office. we had a very good meeting with the amir. i think we understand each other very well. they're very excited about a lot of things that are happening in the middle east. they're so excited that we signed the first two countries, and i think they will end up fairly quickly being a part of it. i have i would say seven or eight countries that want to be a part of it without even working very easily, very quickly. nobody thought this would happen, and not only is it happening, it's happening rather easily. we discussed that very briefly because that's an easy one. believe it or not, that whole thing is now a beautiful puzzle that's coming together very nicely. but we are talking to them and others about various aspects of the middle east. the middle e

we did that, we got into the next day, went out to de-iaea spent several hours out there going up anddown the terminal talking to passengers. trying to reassure them about the security and the safety of of traveling on the airlines, or all airlines. for some people it was very emotional, and they were very touched. for other folks, they were very stoic and they showed a lot of courage, to be good, loyal americans. and get up in the sky and travel again. so we hope that that was a meaningful experience for them. and it certainly was, for it happened to myself, i can guarantee that. there were some anecdotal accounts by other pilots, of things that happened on 9/11 and afterwards. after the initial attack, out here -- ground control in the tower, anybody they could get a hold of that they have not gotten airborne, they turn them around and send them back to the gates. at dulles airport. i talked to actually one of the captions, and they said as soon as they parked and shut down in the open the doors several young males, middle eastern in appearance, jumped up and ran forward out the doo