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‘Crucial stage’: Grossi says visit to Tehran aims to facilitate Iran-US deal
“We are in a very crucial stage of these important negotiations. We know we don’t have much time. This is why I am here... to facilitate this process,” Grossi said on a visit to Tehran, AFP reported.
“We are working hard and we want to succeed,” he told a joint news conference with Iran’s atomic energy agency chief Mohammad Eslami, acknowledging that the effort to secure a deal was “not an easy process.”
On Wednesday, Grossi met with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who led the first round of talks with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on Saturday.
“The IAEA can play a crucial role in peaceful settlement of the Iranian nuclear file in the coming months,” Araghchi said.
Araghchi called on the IAEA chief to “keep the agency away from politics” in the face of those seeking to “derail current negotiations”. He did not elaborate.
Before heading to Iran, Grossi told French newspaper Le Monde that Tehran was “not far” from possessing a nuclear bomb.
Western governments have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons capability, an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.
A year after the US pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal in 2018, Iran began rolling back its own commitments under the agreement, which gave it relief from sanctions in return for IAEA-monitored restrictions on its nuclear activities.
In its latest report, the IAEA said Iran had an estimated 274.8 kilograms (605 pounds) of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent.