Iran has agreed to sit down with international technical experts investigating the discovery of uranium particles at three former unexplained sites in the country, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said on Thursday after months of frustration over Tehran’s lack of credibility.
The agreement came when three of the remaining signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran – France, Germany and Britain – supported the idea of a resolution criticizing Iran for its decision to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors access to the to start limiting current facilities.
IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi told reporters in Vienna that it was not up to him to say whether Iran’s move to hold talks with its technical experts was linked to the decision of the so-called E3 group. but suggested that it was difficult to separate the political side from each other. of Iran’s nuclear program from the technical side.
“It is obvious to everyone that all these issues need to be resolved, and as far as Iran is concerned – and I am not saying anything that Iran itself has not said – everything is, of course, interconnected,” he said.
“These are different parts of a single whole.”
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The E3 sparked the idea of the resolution after Iran began restricting international inspections last week. After a last minute through Grossi to Tehran, some access was retained.
Russia and China – the other members of the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – were opposed to the resolution, saying it could continue to fight Iran.
The German Foreign Ministry told the Associated Press that it was common to “discuss all possible options for action” before all meetings, and that the E3, despite the fact that the resolution had fallen, still had concerns about Iran’s “serious violations’ of the Nuclear Power Agreement.
“We particularly want to support the Director-General of the IAEA in its efforts to start talks with Iran on public protection issues,” the ministry said.
The Iranian ambassador to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, tweeted after the decision that “wisdom prevails” and that the E3 prevented unnecessary tensions.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry welcomed the move.
“Today’s developments can maintain the path of diplomacy that Iran and the IAEA have opened and pave the way for the full implementation of the commitments by all parties to the nuclear deal,” said spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh.
The nuclear deal promised Iran economic incentives in exchange for combating its nuclear program. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the agreement in 2018, saying it should be renegotiated.
Since then, Iran has imposed restrictions on trying to push the remaining countries to slowly violate the incentives to compensate for new, economically crippling U.S. sanctions.
Prior to the decision to restrict access to the IAEA, it had already started enriching more uranium than allowed and, among other things, greater purity than allowed.
US President Joe Biden has said he is ready to enter into talks with Iran and the world powers to discuss a return to the agreement, but the transgressions complicate matters. Iran over the weekend turned down an offer from the European Union to host joint talks.