International Atomic Energy Agency chief, Rafael Grossi, hopes to hold talks with Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, on improving co-operation, according to Reuters.
Relations between Iran and the IAEA have been marred by Tehran’s ban on the participation of uranium enrichment experts in the inspection team and its longstanding reluctance to explain traces of uranium found at undeclared sites.
He [Pezeshkian] agreed to meet with me at an appropriate juncture. I encourage Iran to facilitate such a meeting in the not-too-distant future so that we can establish a constructive dialogue that leads swiftly to real results.
IAEA board resolutions ordering Iran to urgently co-operate with the uranium trace investigation and urging it to lift the ban on inspector access have brought little change. Moreover, IAEA quarterly reports have shown no progress.
In response to the latest resolution, Iran announced in June that it was expanding its enrichment capacity by installing more uranium enrichment machines, at its Natanz and Fordow facilities.
With nuclear diplomacy largely stalled between Iran’s presidential election and the US election on 5 November, Grossi said he wanted to make real progress soon.
What we see is that there is some work, but nothing that indicates a rush to a fast implementation of a big increase in terms of enrichment production.
On 27 August, Grossi visited the Kursk NPP. He said that he saw traces of drone attacks on the plant and stressed that the region was at risk of a nuclear incident. The IAEA chief also stated that he did not see any leakage of materials for Ukraine to make a “dirty bomb.”
