The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi landed in Iran for two days visit as part of efforts to restore the nuclear deal between Iran and the Western countries.
Grossi is holding talks with Iranian officials to safeguard the nuclear deal signed in 2015 but collapsed in 2018 when the then US president withdrew from the agreement.
Grossi met with Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and expressed certitude that progress will be achieved in efforts to end nuclear activities. He highlighted the ongoing challenge but hoped the two sides agreed to move the talks forward.
While stressed on the need to put an end to “doubts and concerns” over Iran’s nuclear program, Grossi said that he is in Iran to achieve this objective.
IAEA has been engaged in talks with AEOI for months, and blamed Iran for nuclear activities at undeclared sites, an allegation which Iran dismissed time and again.
AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi received Grossi at the airport and will stay in the country for two days. He will also meet the Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi.
The western median media reported that uranium particles enriched up to 83.7 percent as Iran just need 90 percent to produce an atomic bomb.
Nuclear agreement failure
Head of AEOI Mohammad Eslami said that they decided to take steps away from the 2015 nuclear agreement after observing lack of commitment from other parties.
“Given the fact that the other parties failed to fulfill their commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), hindered other countries’ cooperation with Iran, and increased the sanctions,” Eslami said in an interview with state TV, referring to the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal in 2018.
After the deal the sanctions must be removed which did not happen. We were also forced to decrease our own commitments as well, he said.
The decision was taken under the law adopted by the Iranian Parliament aimed at protecting the country’s interests against sanctions.
Eslami came up with the remark after meeting Grossi in Tehran and is expected to go for longer discussions between Grossi and Iranian officials.
Enrichment development
France, one of the countries that signed the 2015 deal with Iran and remained engaged in negotiations to restore and rescue the deal, has called the enrichment development “unprecedented and extremely serious.” Meanwhile Grossi will try to secure more substantial access to the site, according to media reports. He will push to increase the number of inspections, but the negotiation process is complicated and fruitless so far that Iran likely allows him to see the sites.
Grossi will return back to Vienna late today
Grossi will return back to Vienna late Saturday evening, and is likely to brief the media. In March 2022, Grossi visited Iran and focused on the sites to facilitate resumption of negotiations between the major powers and Iran to safeguard the country’s nuclear deal.
The negotiation is not a simple process especially when it goes slowly and also the Ukraine war affected the talks. Meanwhile, the US, Israel and countries in most of Europe are really concerned over Iran’s progress toward producing a number bomb.
Israel, the neighboring but arch-enemy of Iran, has already threatened to take military action if needed to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear state.
Nevertheless, Grossi is in Tehran to re-launch the dialogue and reach a conclusion to the deal to make sure to limit Iran’s nuclear activities in return of lifting international sanctions.
Another concern
On his part, CIA Director William Burns has expressed concern about growing relations between Iran and Russia and said the cooperation between the countries can go further behind merely military cooperation.
There has been reported that Iran sent military equipment, including drones to Russia to use them in the war in Ukraine. However, both Tehran and Moscow denied such cooperation, and Iran said it is ready to welcome foreign delegation to investigate the news of sending military support to Russia.
Regarding the nuclear activities, Burns said that the sudden progress of the Iranian nuclear program and it is growing at a “worrisome pace”.
“They’ve advanced very far to the point where it would only be a matter of weeks before they can enrich to 90% if they chose to cross that line,” Reuters reported Burns as saying.
But he said that the US does not believe that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has decided to resume the weaponization program that “we judge that they suspended or stopped at the end of 2003.”
Meanwhile, an Israeli delegation including Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Council chief Tzachi Hanegbi will visit the US to meet with officials from the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department to kick start deep talks on Iran’s enrichment of uranium.
New sanctions
On the day when Grossi visited Iran, the US came up with new sanctions on Iran-linked shipping and petrochemical companies, including two shipping firms based in China.
The Treasury Department’s website also showed that the sanctions also targeted 20 shipping vessels linked to firms in China, Vietnam, and the United Arab Emirates.
The order was implemented under a 2018 US executive order that restored sanctions targeting Iran’s oil, banking, and transportation sectors.
Weeks ago, the US also imposed sanctions on several jurisdiction that have played a critical role in the production, sale, and shipment of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Iranian petrochemicals and petroleum to buyers in Asia.
