Iran: UN nuclear chief's visit to Tehran unrelated to US sanctions push

Tehran’s envoy to IAEA says Rafael Grossi coming at Islamic Republic’s invitation, without link to Trump’s attempts to trigger ‘snapback’ mechanism

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran said Sunday that an upcoming visit this week by the head of the UN’s atomic watchdog agency to Tehran has nothing to do with a US push to impose so-called “snapback” sanctions on Iran.

The Trump administration last week dismissed near-universal opposition to its demand to restore all UN sanctions on Iran, declaring that a 30-day countdown for the “snapback” of penalties eased under the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers had begun.

US allies and foes have joined forces to declare the action illegal and doomed to failure. The US argues that Iran has violated the restrictions imposed on its nuclear program under the 2015 deal, a charge Tehran has denied.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency on Sunday quoted Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Kazem Gharibadadi, as saying that the visit this week is “neither related to the snapback mechanism nor the US demand.”

Gharibabadi said the visit by the IAEA chief Rafael Grossi comes within “the framework of Iran’s invitation.”

“We do not allow others to manage Iran,” he said, adding that Iran’s trust in the IAEA has been “damaged in recent months.”

He expressed hope Grossi’s visit will lead to building trust. “It is important to assure Tehran that the agency will move based on impartiality, independence and professionalism,” said Gharibabadi.

US President Donald Trump, accompanied by (From left), US special envoy for Iran Brian Hook, Avraham Berkowitz, Assistant to the President and Special Representative for International Negotiations, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Trump’s White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, applauding in the Oval Office at the White House, August 12, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The IAEA said on Saturday that Grossi will head to Tehran to press Iranian authorities for access to sites where the country is thought to have stored or used undeclared nuclear material. Gharibabadi said Grossi was due to meet with Iranian officials on both Tuesday and Wednesday.

The landmark 2015 nuclear deal was endorsed by a UN Security Council resolution and includes the snapback provision. US President Donald Trump pulled America out of the accord in 2018 and imposed severe US sanctions on Iran.

Last week, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a letter to the UN Security Council said the US has no right to demand the restoration of UN sanctions, arguing that the US lost the right to make demands when it withdrew from the accord.

The five countries now in dispute with the US administration — Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — remain supporters of the nuclear deal to rein in Iran’s nuclear program and prevent its development of nuclear weapons. The five nations and Iran will meet in Vienna on September 1.