Iran, IAEA to resume nuclear cooperation
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Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog reach an agreement putting cooperation between them back in full throttle in the wake of a state visit by the agency's chief.
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International Atomic Energy Organization Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, right, speaks with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, left, during a round of talks, in Tehran, March 4, 2023 (AP Photo)
Iran expressed readiness to provide further information and access to address the outstanding safeguards issues, referring to uranium traces at undeclared sites, said a joint statement by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran in a report seen by Reuters, the agency reported Saturday.
Tehran, according to the joint statement, will allow the UN nuclear watchdog to implement further verification and monitoring activities, and the modalities regarding the issue would be agreed upon in the course of a technical meeting that the joint statement said would take place in the Iranian capital "soon".
Furthermore, the IAEA issued a report regarding Iran's nuclear activity after the joint statement between the Islamic Republic and the UN agency, saying the watchdog's chief looked forward to the follow-up technical discussions and prompt and full implementation of the joint statement.
Furthermore, Grossi said he welcomed Iran allowing the agency to implement further verification and monitoring activities, adding that he believed that his agency could start implementing "concrete measures very soon" and that "some monitoring equipment will begin operating again."
He underlined that one key thing that came out of the agreement, which he said was a "tangible result of the trip to Tehran", is that we have agreed that we are going to be moving on to concrete access to things, including people of interest.
Grossi's two-day visit comes as the Vienna-based organization seeks greater cooperation with Iran on its nuclear activities.
"By having a constructive discussion... and having good agreements, like I am sure we are going to have, we are going to be paving the way for important agreements," Grossi told a news conference alongside Iran's top nuclear official Mohammad Eslami after talks with the official.
"I believe that a marked improvement in terms of my dialogue with the Iranian government has been registered," the IAEA chief added in the joint statement. "We have put a tourniquet on the bleeding of information and lack of continuity of knowledge we had."
He also explained that the IAEA and Tehran agreed that the issue of knowledge continuity was going to be addressed, saying there would be 50% more inspections at the Fordow plant.
"In very few days we will have a team in Iran," Grossi added. "Monitoring equipment will be reinstalled in a number of places."
Grossi arrived in Iran on Friday amid a stalemate in talks to resurrect a landmark 2015 agreement on Iran's nuclear activities, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
A diplomatic source told AFP the IAEA chief would meet President Ebrahim Raisi during his trip to "relaunch the dialogue" on Iran's atomic work and to "reset the relationship at the highest level".
Grossi had made it clear that he would only travel to Tehran if he was invited to meet with the president, according to the source.
According to an IAEA report seen by AFP this week, uranium particles enriched up to 83.7 percent – just under the 90 percent required to produce an atomic bomb – had been detected at Iran's underground Fordow plant about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the capital.
Read next: Iran's AEOI slams 84% uranium enrichment claims as false
However, Tehran denies wanting nuclear weapons and that it has made no attempts to enrich uranium beyond 60% purity. Iran's government noted that "unintended fluctuations... may have occurred" during the enrichment process.
The discovery came after Iran made significant changes to an interconnection between two centrifuge clusters enriching uranium without informing the IAEA.
Eslami called on other signatories to the 2015 agreement to fulfill their "obligations" at a joint press conference on Saturday. "Three European and some other countries are just focusing on Iran's JCPOA obligations," he told the news conference. "They too have obligations that they need to adhere to."
"We came to an arrangement (with Grossi) to define our cooperation within the framework of the safeguards" on nuclear activity.
During his visit, the IAEA director general sought "more access to the (Fordow) site, more inspections," according to a diplomatic source, and it seems that he got what he wished for by the end of the visit.
