IAEA chief: Iran nuke deal unsalvageable, new deal would be needed under Biden

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says a new nuclear deal would be needed with Iran under the US presidency of Joe Biden, since the existing deal has now been breached too many times.

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi in Vienna on November 30, 2020. (Alex Halada/AFP)

Biden has expressed hope that the 2015 deal — which US President Donald Trump left in 2018 — could be revived if Tehran “resumes strict compliance” with its terms, which it has since breached.

“I cannot imagine that they are going simply to say, ‘We are back to square one’ because square one is no longer there,” Rafael Grossi tells Reuters. “It is clear that there will have to be a protocol or an agreement or an understanding or some ancillary document which will stipulate clearly what we do.

“There is more [nuclear] material… there is more activity, there are more centrifuges, and more are being announced. So what happens with all this? This is the question for them at the political level to decide,” he says.