Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), “will head to Tehran for a two-day trip … to resolve the alleged safeguards issues with Iranian officials during his visit,” Iran’s IRNA news agency said on Tuesday.
“It is essential that we make substantive progress in the implementation of the Joint Statement agreed with Iran in March 2023. My visit to Tehran will be very important in that regard," Grossi said on Sunday.
The meeting will build on Grossi’s discussions with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in September, IAEA said.
This visit comes after Javad Zarif, Iran’s vice president for strategic affairs, stated on Saturday that the maximum pressure policy initiated by the US caused a rise in uranium enrichment to 60 percent from 3.5 percent.
In September, Grossi told Rudaw in UNGA that the international community and Iran need a “solid framework” to stabilize the situation regarding Tehran’s nuclear program.
In March of 2023, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and the IAEA issued a joint statement agreeing to facilitate enhanced cooperation.
Under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran agreed to curb its nuclear enrichment program in exchange for much-needed relief from crippling sanctions.
But the deal began unraveling in 2018, when Washington, under former President Donald Trump’s administration, unilaterally withdrew from the accord and re-imposed sanctions on the Islamic republic, which in turn began stepping up its nuclear enrichment efforts.
Tehran, however, has repeatedly denied that it seeks to develop an atomic bomb, saying that such a move goes against the Islamic Republic’s doctrine.
In September of last year, Grossi condemned Tehran’s decision to withdraw accreditation from experienced IAEA inspectors, after Iran’s foreign ministry withdrew their licenses on what they said were “excessive demands” by the UK, France, Germany, and the United States with the “aim of destroying cooperation between Iran and the IAEA” and misusing the watchdog “for their own political purposes.”
In February, the US said it was “seriously concerned” about the expansion of Iran’s nuclear program and slammed Tehran’s cooperation as “severely lacking.”
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