Before leaving Iran, Grossi indicated that he had held “constructive talks” with the country’s authorities. Tehran last year limited inspections and disconnected surveillance cameras in a moment of sharp deterioration of their relations with the western powers.
The decision to reconnect them is “very, very important, particularly in view of reactivating the 2015 agreement”by which the Iranian government undertook to limit its nuclear activities in exchange for a reduction in economic sanctions. That agreement, signed between Iran and the States parties (USA, China, Russia, UK, France and Germany), has been dying since the United States withdrew from it in 2018, during the presidency of Donald Trump.
The Islamic Republic has been ignoring various commitments in that agreement ever since. Talks to revive it began in 2021, with the indirect participation of the United States, but have been paralyzed since last year. In November 2022, Western countries criticized Iran’s lack of cooperation after the discovery of enriched uranium. at three undeclared facilities. According to the IAEA, Iran’s enriched uranium reserves totaled 3,760.8 kilos on February 1218 times more than the limit authorized by the 2015 agreement.
After his meeting with Grossi, the director of the Iranian atomic energy organization, Mohamad Eslamiassured thate Iranian authorities “will continue to work” with the IAEA, while exhorting other parties to “fulfill their obligations” under the agreement. Grossi was also received by the President of the Islamic Republic, Ebrahim Raisi, who underlined the priority to defend the “rights of the Iranian nation”.
“We expect the IAEA to take a totally professional approach (towards the Iranian nuclear issue) and that the political powers do not affect the activities of the Agency”he added, according to the website of the presidency. Grossi will present the results of his visit to the IAEA board of governors on Wednesday.
“Today’s announcements are not enough to reduce the growing risk of nuclear proliferation posed by Iran,” he claimed kelsey davenportan expert from the Arms Control Association, an American organization that promotes arms control policies. The United States and European countries “should try to capitalize on this development to give a diplomatic boost leading Iran to commit to new negotiations,” he added, referring to a possible IAEA resolution related to detection of uranium enrichment levels at Fordo.
Iranthat denies wanting to acquire the nuclear bombclaimed that this high level was due to “unintentional fluctuations” in the enrichment process. The Islamic Republic claims that has not tried to enrich uranium beyond 60% and insists that its nuclear program is purely civilian.
France described the discovery of highly enriched uranium as “extremely serious”. Restrictions included in the 2015 pact included a uranium enrichment threshold of 3.67%.
Source: Ambito
