BERLIN (AP) – The head of the United Nations atomic surveillance firm will travel to Tehran next week to pressure the Iranian government to access sites where the country allegedly stored or used undeclared nuclear materials, the organization said Saturday.
This will be the first stopover in Iran through the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, since last December’s takeover, and is amid intense foreign tension in the country over its nuclear program.
Access to sites believed to date back to the early 2000s, before Iran signed the 2015 nuclear deal with global powers. Iran submits that IAEA inspectors have no legal basis to examine the sites.
“My purpose is for my meetings in Tehran to lead to concrete progress in addressing the notable problems the firm has linked to promises in Iran and, in particular, to the access factor,” Grossi said in a statement.
“I also look forward to identifying a fruitful and cooperative channel of direct discussion with the Iranian government that will be valuable now and in the future.”
The Iranian delegation to foreign organizations in Vienna tweeted that “we hope this will lead to greater mutual cooperation.”
Since President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, the other affected countries (France, Britain, Germany, Russia, and China) have struggled to keep him alive.
The agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan, or JCPOA, promises Iran economic incentives in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program. But with the reinstatement of some U.S. sanctions, Iran’s economy continues to worsen, and Tehran has begun to violate the provisions of the agreement to try to pressure other countries to do more to compensate for sanctions.
At the same time, Iran has continued to supply IAEA inspectors with its nuclear facilities, one of the main reasons why countries that are still parties to the agreement stress the importance of keeping it alive.
Last week, the United States increased the pressure, officially informing the United Nations that it was not easy to reinstate all UN sanctions opposing Iran, arguing that Iran is in a state of non-compliance and proposing a provision in the nuclear agreement to “return”even more on sanctions.
Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, which disagree, have declared us action illegal, arguing that it is highly unlikely to withdraw from an agreement and then use the solution that passed it to re-impose sanctions.
Iran also rejected the decision, but the U.S. stood firm on its weapons, saying a 30-day countdown to the resumption of sanctions softened after the signing of the 2015 agreement.
Nations and Iran are scheduled to meet in Vienna on 1 September.