Iran invites IAEA chief to attend conference in May
Iran has invited the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi to visit the country in May, said the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).
The head of the IAEA “has expressed his desire to go to Iran and this trip is on his agenda,” Mohammad Eslami told reporters on Wednesday, IRNA
reported.
“We have invited him to give a speech at the international conference on nuclear energy,” which will be held from May 6 to 8 in the central city of Isfahan, he added. Eslami said a visit next month was unlikely due to a “busy schedule”.
Grossi said on Monday that Iran continues to enrich uranium well beyond the needs for commercial nuclear use despite UN pressure to stop it, adding that he wanted to visit Tehran next month for the first time in a year to end “drifting apart”.
Speaking to Reuters after he briefed EU foreign ministers on the subject, Grossi said that while the pace of uranium enrichment had slowed slightly since the end of last year, Iran was still enriching at an elevated rate of around 7kg of uranium per month, to 60 percent purity.
Eslami told reporters on Wednesday, “Iran’s interactions with the IAEA continue as normal, and discussions are held to resolve ambiguities and develop cooperation”.
He said that the IAEA sends a report on Iran’s nuclear activities to the Board of Governors and the UN Security Council every three months and six months, respectively.
Iran and the IAEA are in a dispute triggered by the agency’s Israeli-influenced accusations, which were leveled against Tehran’s peaceful nuclear activities. The IAEA insisted on investigating what it claims to be “uranium traces” found at “undeclared nuclear sites” in Iran.
The row turned into a sticking point in the talks aimed at reviving the US-abandoned 2015 nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Eslami asserted that Iran’s nuclear measures are in line with the JCPOA’s Articles 26 and 36 amid the non-compliance of other parties to their commitments under the deal.
The measures, he emphasized, also abide by the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions, which was adopted by the Iranian Parliament in December 2020. The law was approved to counter illegal sanctions imposed on Iran by the US and its Western allies.
Iran suspended its compliance with limits on its nuclear activities after then US president Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the agreement in 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions.