The Iranian government has not made any concessions to the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) in negotiations, said Rafael Grossi, head of the Vienna-based IAEA on Wednesday after his visit to Teheran. The visit focused on problems in surveilling Iranian nuclear facilities and open questions about the development of the country’s nuclear programme. Despite all his efforts, the negotiations and talks about nuclear inspections were “without result,” Grossi said.
His inspectors have not been given access to IAEA surveillance cameras and to a workshop for uranium centrifuges for months, he complained. “We are close to a point where I cannot guarantee a consistent level of knowledge,” Grossi said.
On Monday a new round of negotiations will begin, with the aim of reintroducing the Vienna agreement of 2015 (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed at the time by Iran and the P5+1, which includes the United States, China, Russia, France, the UK and Germany). The negotiations were interrupted after the presidential election in Iran in June and the change in government in Tehran. The remaining parties are also attempting to bring the US back into the nuclear deal.
The Vienna agreement, which took over ten years to negotiate, is aimed at preventing Iran from building nuclear weapons. In exchange, the punishing sanctions on Iran are due to be lifted.
After the US withdrew from the deal under President Donald Trump and issued sanctions, Iran reacted by overstepping the technical boundaries set out in the nuclear deal. These included further enriching uranium in order to make it increasingly weapon-grade.
Reported in cooperation with the Austrian Press Agency / APA.
