Nuclear chief: IAEA head in no position to comment on JCPOA talks
The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran criticized the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for making comments on the political process of negotiations on a revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Mohammad Eslami reacted to the recent remarks by IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi, who, in an interview with CBC News, cast doubt on “the prospects of a swift return” to the Iran nuclear deal, officially named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran Front Page reported.
Eslami reminded Grossi that the IAEA is solely in charge of monitoring the technical aspect of the JCPOA’s implementation, and that the nuclear watchdog is not a party to the talks, which have been at a stalemate since late 2021.
“The IAEA is not in charge of the negotiations, and that responsibility lies on the P5+1 group,” including the U.S., which abandoned the deal in 2018, France, Britain, Russia China plus Germany, Eslami added.
Elsewhere, he said Iran continues cooperation with the agency based on the Safeguards Agreement and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and that there has been “no disruption” in interactions between the two sides.
Grossi had claimed in the interview that the level of interactions with Tehran could not currently be “assessed to be good.”