Rafael Grossi, the Director General of the UN nuclear watchdog, arrived late Saturday in Iran for talks on the eve of Tehran’s deadline for US sanctions to be lifted, to find a “mutually agreeable solution, compatible with Iranian law.”
Grossi was received in Tehran by Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Kazem Gharibabadi, and Iran Atomic Energy Organisation official Behrouz Kamalvandi. The IAEA chief’s visit is due to run into Sunday.
The deadline, set by Iranian lawmakers, carries the threat of a suspension of some nuclear inspections, stoking international concern about a possible expulsion of UN inspectors.
But Iran has stressed it will not cease working with the (IAEA) or expel its inspectors.
On Friday, Grossi tweeted he would “meet with senior Iranian officials to find a mutually agreeable solution, compatible with Iranian law, so that the @iaeaorg can continue essential verification activities in Iran”.
“Looking forward to success — this is in everybody’s interest,” he added.
Iran has notified the IAEA that it will suspend “voluntary transparency measures”, notably inspection visits to non-nuclear sites, including military sites suspected of nuclear-related activity, if the United States has not lifted the sweeping sanctions former president Donald Trump reimposed in 2018.
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The new measures, laid out in a law passed by the conservative-dominated parliament in December, are to go into effect on Tuesday, the head of Iran’s atomic body, Ali Akbar Salehi, confirmed on Saturday.
As Iran implements the law and “the other side has not yet fulfilled its obligations to lift the sanctions, inspections beyond safeguard measures will be suspended”, state television quoted Salehi as saying on its website.
He added that “during tomorrow’s (Sunday) meeting with Mr. Grossi, the IAEA’s considerations in the framework of the safeguards agreement and bilateral cooperation will be reviewed and discussed”.
Trump withdrew from the nuclear accord in 2018, while Iran started the next year to suspend its compliance with most key nuclear commitments in response.
In an opening gesture, the Biden administration has dropped a push for more sanctions crafted by Trump and removed restrictions on Iranian diplomats accredited to the United Nations in New York.
Iran’s government spokesman, Ali Rabiei, on Saturday stressed that Tehran’s latest nuclear move will not prevent it from responding to any US show of goodwill and expressed optimism regarding the ongoing diplomatic process.
It is “neither against our (deal) commitments nor an obstacle for proportionate and appropriate response to any US action to prove (its) goodwill”, he wrote in an op-ed for government newspaper Iran.
“We can confidently predict that diplomatic initiatives will work well (to achieve) the desired outcome, despite diplomatic back-and-forths, which are the natural prelude to the return of all sides to commitments, including the lifting of all sanctions in the near future,” he added.
