Vienna (agencies)
Yesterday, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency of the United Nations expressed his “surprise” that the new Iranian government did not communicate with the agency on many important outstanding issues since it took office.
Rafael Grossi had hoped to visit Iran before the next meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which begins on November 22, but he was disappointed that he had not received an invitation so far.
Grossi’s comments came as preparations were made to resume talks in Vienna later this month on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Parallel to those efforts, the IAEA is trying to resolve several other issues with Iran, including restrictions on some inspection activities imposed by Tehran earlier in the year.
Rafael Grossi visited Tehran in September, where he reached an agreement on access to monitoring equipment at Iran’s nuclear facilities, but had hoped to return soon after for further discussions with the government of President Ebrahim Raisi, who took office in August.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency told reporters, “I have not had any contact with this government… which was formed more than five months ago,” adding that the only exceptions were “technical talks” with the new head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization.
Grossi added: “This is surprising, and I say that frankly because I address them.” He stressed that “there is a long list of topics that we need to discuss.”
Days after Grossi’s visit to Tehran in September, the IAEA complained that, contrary to the agreement, it was denied “necessary” access to a workshop for manufacturing centrifuge components to maintain monitoring equipment.
Another long-standing issue between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran relates to the agency’s question about the previous presence of nuclear materials at undeclared sites in the country.
The agency said in several reports: that Iran’s explanations regarding the materials were not satisfactory.
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