IAEA chief resumes talks with Iran to clarify safeguards issues over undeclared nuke sites
Taking to his official Twitter handle, Rafael Grossi announced that IAEA has resumed talks with Iran regarding “clarification of safeguard issues.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi held a meeting with the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami on Saturday, September 26. Taking to his official Twitter handle, Grossi announced that IAEA has resumed talks with Iran regarding clarification of safeguard issues. The meeting between the two sides comes amid a dispute over the “presence of uranium particles of anthropogenic origin at three undeclared locations” in Iran.
Rafael Grossi took to Twitter and wrote, “Dialogue has restarted with Iran on clarification of outstanding safeguards issues. I received Mohammad Eslami, Vice-President and Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, during IAEA’s 66th session of IAEA General Conference.”
In his remarks at the 66th regular session of the IAEA general conference, Grossi said that the UN nuclear watchdog has made efforts to hold dialogue with Iran to address issues regarding the presence of uranium particles of anthropogenic origin at “three undeclared locations” in Iran. He pointed out that Iran has not held talks with IAEA since June and the issues between the two sides have not been resolved.
“With regard to the NPT Safeguards Agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Agency has made efforts to engage with Iran to resolve outstanding issues related to the presence of uranium particles of anthropogenic origin at three undeclared locations in Iran. Since June, Iran has not engaged with the Agency,” Rafael Grossi said in the statement.
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IAEA willing to hold talks with Iran to address issues: Grossi
In his speech at the IAEA general conference, Grossi said that the UN nuclear watchdog is not in a position to give assurance for Iran’s nuclear programme He expressed IAEA’s willingness to re-engage with Iran without delay to address the issues and find common solutions. Rafael Grossi underscored that the IAEA’s verification and monitoring of Iran’s nuclear-related commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) have been seriously impacted by Iran’s decision to stop the implementation of commitments.
The IAEA will need to know the gap in its knowledge regarding what took place in Iran while the agency’s surveillance and monitoring equipment linked to JCPOA was not functional in case Iran begins full implementation of its nuclear-related commitments under the nuclear deal.
Notably, the JCPOA deal was signed between Iran, China, Germany, France, UK, Russia and US along with European Union in 2015. However, US announced its withdrawal from JCPOA deal in 2018. According to Al-Monitor, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian expressed Iran’s willingess to cooperate with IAEA to resolve issues regarding questions related to uranium found at three “alleged” sites. However, he stressed that the IAEA need to raise the questions “technically.”
