VIENNA— The International Atomic Energy Agency’s
(IAEA) chief is to visit Iran on Sunday to try to defuse tension with the West
over what the UN watchdog says is Tehran's lack of cooperation in monitoring
its
nuclear program.
اضافة اعلان
The visit comes before the quarterly meeting of the IAEA’s
board of governors next week, with efforts to revive a 2015 deal to halt Iran's
nuclear development stalled.
Director-General Rafael Grossi will meet the Iranian vice
president and the head of the country's nuclear agency, Mohammad Eslami, the UN
body said in an emailed statement on Saturday.
He is expected to leave in the afternoon, Iranian ambassador
to international organizations in Vienna Kazem Gharib Abadi tweeted.
Grossi — on his second trip to Iran this year — was expected
to hold a press conference on his return to Vienna airport around 8:30 pm, the
statement added.
The IAEA made a stark assessment on Iran in a report to
member states this week.
Since February 23 "the agency's verification and
monitoring activities have been seriously undermined as a result of Iran's
decision to stop the implementation of its nuclear-related commitments,"
the report said.
In these conditions, the IAEA's technical capacity to
monitor Iran's nuclear program has "significantly further declined",
and its confidence "that it can maintain continuity of knowledge is
declining over time", it said.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raissi insisted that his country
was being "transparent".
"Naturally, in the event of a non-constructive approach
by the IAEA, it is unreasonable to expect Iran to respond constructively,"
he said on Wednesday, according to a statement from the presidency.
In the meantime, talks begun in April in Vienna, under the
aegis of the European Union, to try to resurrect the 2015 international
agreement have been suspended since June.
No date for a resumption has yet been announced despite
repeated calls from the West, which is alarmed by the recent revival of Iran's
nuclear program.
Faced with this impasse, the United States is
"close" to abandoning its efforts, Secretary of State Antony Blinken
said on Wednesday.
The US envoy for Iran Robert Malley was in Moscow and Paris
from Tuesday to Friday for "consultations" with Russia and the
Europeans.
He mentioned on Twitter "constructive meetings"
with a view to a "rapid return" to the "Joint Comprehensive Plan
of Action".
The Islamic republic has gradually freed itself from its
nuclear obligations since 2019, in response to the reinstatement of US
sanctions by former US president Donald Trump.
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