UN nuclear watchdog chief urges Iran to take ‘concrete’ steps for cooperation
In visit to Iran, IAEA’s Grossi notes ‘slowdown’ in implementation of 2023 deal meant to improve safeguards, monitoring of Tehran’s nuclear program
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi on Tuesday called on Iran to adopt “concrete” measures to help bolster cooperation on the country’s nuclear program.
At a news conference in the Iranian city of Isfahan, Grossi said he had proposed in talks with Iranian officials that they “focus on the very concrete, very practical and tangible measures that can be implemented in order to accelerate” cooperation.
Grossi held discussions with senior Iranian officials including Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. While both men said there would be no immediate new deal struck during the visit, they pointed to a March 2023 joint statement as a path forward for cooperation between the IAEA and Iran.
The IAEA director general said the agreement was “still valid” but required that more “substance” be added.
That 2023 agreement was reached during Grossi’s last visit to Iran, and outlined basic cooperation measures including on safeguards and monitoring.
It also included a pledge by Iran to resolve issues around sites where inspectors have questions about possible undeclared nuclear activity, and to allow the IAEA to “implement further appropriate verification and monitoring activities.”
The IAEA chief said, however, that there had been a “slowdown” in its implementation.
Iran has suspended its compliance with caps on nuclear activities set by a landmark 2015 deal with major powers after the United States in 2018 unilaterally withdrew from the agreement and reimposed sweeping sanctions.
Tensions between Iran and the IAEA have repeatedly flared since the deal fell apart, and EU-mediated efforts have so far failed both to bring Washington back on board and to get Tehran to again comply with the terms of the accord.
The agency has in recent months criticized Iran for lack of cooperation on issues including the expansion of its nuclear work, the barring of inspectors and deactivating the agency’s monitoring devices at its nuclear facilities.
In February, it said in a confidential report seen by AFP that Iran’s estimated stockpile of enriched uranium had reached 27 times the limit set out in the 2015 accord.
Last year, Iran slowed the pace of its uranium enrichment, which was seen as a goodwill gesture while informal talks began with the United States.
But Iran then accelerated the production of 60 percent enriched uranium in late 2023, according to the IAEA.
Enrichment levels of around 90 percent are required for military use, a short, technical step.
Tehran has consistently denied any ambition to develop nuclear weapons, insisting that its atomic activities are entirely peaceful, although experts say that there is no civilian application for uranium enriched to that level.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on Tehran’s nuclear program, issued a fatwa, or religious decree, in the early 2000s banning the development of nuclear weapons because they are contrary to “the spirit of Islam.”
While Iran denies ever seeking such a weapon, Israel and the West believe the country had an active nuclear weapons program until at least 2003, and the IAEA found that some aspects of it continued until 2009.
Israel and others have accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons despite the ban, and Grossi warned last year that Tehran has enough enriched uranium for “several” nuclear bombs if it chose to build them.
During the conference, Eslami said that talks with Grossi were “constructive,” and agreed that the 2023 agreement was a “good basis for interactions” between Iran and the agency.
