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IAEA, Iran to resume negotiations soon: Grossi

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
10 Mar 2023 21:03

Discussions between the IAEA and Iran will reportedly resume "in a week or ten days" according to IAEA Director General.

In this Friday, March 3, 2023, photo released by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Organization, IAEA, left, speaks with head of Iran's atomic agency Mohammad Eslami in Tehran, Iran (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP)

Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will resume a new round of discussions on Tehran's nuclear program in seven to ten days, according to IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi on Friday.

The first round of negotiations had taken place late last week in Tehran. When asked about the follow-up during a meeting of the IAEA board of governors, he was quoted by Reuters saying "In a week or 10 days."

The latest talks are expected to clarify Iran's stance on permitting IAEA surveillance.

Grossi, the IAEA director general, had met with Mohammad Eslami, IAEO chief, in an official visit to Iran. Grossi described Iran's decision to allow the IAEA to proceed with inspections as "very important," as "it would allow the agency to begin to establish a new baseline necessary in the event of a resumption of Iran’s implementation of its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA."

The Director General of the International Energy Agency welcomed Iran's high-level assurances that it is ready to carry out further appropriate verification and monitoring activities and to cooperate with the agency to resolve outstanding safeguards issues, including those related to the three undeclared sites where the agency found traces of uranium particles.

Grossi said he now looks forward to pursuing technical discussions and the immediate and full implementation of Iran's assurances, noting that technical discussions have begun between Iran and the IAEA to clarify the issue of the highly enriched uranium (84%) particles found at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP).

Back in February, The UN nuclear watchdog criticized Iran after it made alleged undeclared changes to its Fordow fuel enrichment plant, upping its uranium enrichment to 60% purity.

IAEA inspectors claimed that two cascades of IR-6 centrifuges for enriching uranium to 60% were interconnected in a manner that "differed significantly" from that declared by Iran in its report to the IAEA.

Subsequently, The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami described the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) report as "unprofessional".

Eslami affirmed that Iran contacted the agency and informed it that the mistake was actually in a faulty report submitted by one of the agency's inspectors during an unannounced visit to the facility.