IAEA does not know status of new Iranian enrichment facility in Isfahan, Grossi says

WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) - The International Atomic Energy Agency does not know the status of the new Iranian enrichment facility in Isfahan that is in an underground nuclear complex, agency chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday.

"It is underground, but we haven't visited it yet," said Grossi, who is in Washington for a conference and to hold talks with Trump administration officials.

Iran informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog of the new facility in June and Grossi said his inspectors were in Isfahan later that month to see it but had to cancel the visit when the nuclear complex there was struck at the beginning of the 12-day war with Israel.

Grossi said because the inspectors had to cancel their visit, the agency does not know "whether it is simply an empty hall" or hosts concrete pads awaiting the installation of centrifuges - the machines that enriched uranium for power plants and nuclear weapons - or whether some centrifuges had been installed.

"There are many questions that we will only elucidate when we are able to go back," he said.

A projectile hit an area near Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant ​on Tuesday evening, however it caused ‌no damage or injuries, Iran told the IAEA.

Entrances to Iran's underground and ​previously bombed uranium-enrichment plant at Natanz ‌were struck earlier in the U.S.-Israeli military attacks on the country, the IAEA confirmed on March 3.