IAEA confident of Iran’s cooperation
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi on Monday spoke positively on his trip to Iran, saying his meetings in Tehran “addressed the importance of taking steps to facilitate enhanced cooperation”.
On Saturday, Grossi returned from Tehran where he held talks with senior officials including Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and President of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami.
“These high-level meetings addressed the importance of taking steps to facilitate enhanced cooperation to expedite as appropriate the resolution of outstanding safeguards issues,” head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog told the IAEA Board of Governors on Monday.
“Both sides recognize that such positive engagements can pave the way for wider agreements among state parties,” he added.
Grossi then stressed that following his discussions with Eslami in Tehran on Saturday, Iran agrees to allow the agency to proceed with further monitoring and verification measures “indispensable to the agency fulfilling its mission.”
“Achieving this will be very important because it would allow the agency to begin to establish a new baseline necessary in the event of a resumption of Iran’s implementation of its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA,” he then asserted.
Grossi noted that he looks forward to the follow-up technical discussions and to the prompt and full implementation of Iran’s assurances and the joint statement between Eslami and himself.
“Following discussions between Iran and agency officials, Iran has since confirmed that it will facilitate the further increase in the frequency and intensity of agency verification activities at Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), as notified by the agency,” the IAEA director general said.
The agency and Iran have initiated technical discussions to fully clarify the issue of found particles of high enriched uranium with enrichment level of 83.7%, according to Grossi.
Concluding his speech, he welcomed Iran’s high-level assurances that it is willing to implement further appropriate verification and monitoring activities, and to cooperate with the agency to resolve the outstanding safeguards issues, including those pertaining to the “three undeclared locations in which the agency found traces of uranium particles of anthropogenic origin”.
Later, Grossi took part in a press conference to explain to the reporters the achievements of his Tehran visit.
During the presser, the IAEA director general said that the IAEA and AEOI discussed in Tehran the issue of moving the dialogue to the stage reaching tangible results.
Explaining the agreement reached with Tehran on the expansion of inspections, Grossi said the agency doesn’t have a detailed list of places it plans to visit in Iran nor specific dates yet for doing so.
He then noted that a high-ranking delegation from the IAEA will visit Tehran in the coming days to explore the technical modalities of the agreements reached with Iran.
“Technical and diplomatic solutions are possible and practical, and this is what we will always strive for,” the IAEA chief said.