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Iran hails ‘constructive’ talks with visiting IAEA chief
TEHRAN, Aug 25, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Iran’s nuclear body said it held
“constructive” talks on Tuesday with the visiting head of the International
Atomic Energy Agency amid tensions over a US bid to reimpose UN sanctions.
The trip is Rafael Mariano Grossi’s first to the Islamic republic since the
Argentine took the helm of the Vienna-based UN agency last year.
It comes more than two years after US President Donald Trump pulled out of
a landmark international agreement that put curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme
in exchange for sanctions relief.
Grossi first met with the head of the country’s atomic agency, Ali Akbar
Salehi. Later he is due to meet Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
“A new chapter has started with this visit,” Salehi said after the meeting,
quoted by state news agency IRNA.
“Today’s talks were constructive,” he added.
“It was decided that the agency continue its work professionally and
independently and Iran, too, act in the framework of its commitments.”
In a statement before the meeting, the nuclear body had said Iran expects
the IAEA to “maintain neutrality in any situation and refrain from entering
international political games.”
The UN agency’s board of governors had passed a resolution in late June put
forward by European states, urging Tehran to provide inspectors access to two
sites to help clarify whether undeclared nuclear activity took place there in
the early 2000s.
According to the spokesman for Iran’s nuclear body, one of the two is
located in central Iran between Isfahan and Yazd provinces, and the other is
close to Tehran.
He hinted in a Monday interview with Iran’s Al-Alam television network that
access may be granted if the agency does not demand more.
“To prevent enemies from exploiting the situation… we are seeking ways to
alleviate our concerns and say there is access, see there’s nothing,” Behrouz
Kamalvandi was quoted as saying.
“But this issue must be resolved once and for all… meaning that they
would not demand afterwards to inspect somewhere else in the same way,” he
added.
Access to the sites has been blocked for months, prompting a diplomatic
row.
Iran has argued that the IAEA’s access requests are based on allegations
from Iran’s arch-enemy Israel and have no legal basis.
– Rising tensions –
Grossi’s visit comes amid tensions between the US and its European allies
over Washington’s bid to maintain an arms embargo on Iran and reimpose UN
sanctions.
It also takes place shortly before a September 1 meeting of the joint
commission on the 2015 deal between Iran and global powers.
The deal has been on life-support since Trump’s decision to pull out of it
in 2018.
The US and European nations are at loggerheads after Washington began the
process Thursday of activating a controversial mechanism aimed at restoring
UN sanctions against Iran.
Britain, France and Germany rejected the move, saying it frustrated their
efforts to salvage the 2015 nuclear accord.
Washington controversially maintains it has the right to force the
reimposition of sanctions through the agreement’s “snapback” mechanism,
despite its withdrawal.
Iran-US tensions have escalated since the US in May 2018 withdrew from the
deal formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
In retaliation, Iran has progressively abandoned commitments under the
accord that was meant to give it relief from sanctions in exchange for curbs
on its nuclear programme.
Grossi is also expected to meet Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on
Wednesday before flying back to Vienna.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1512 hrs