TEHRAN — Iran and the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Sunday announced the IAEA will
keep up surveillance of Tehran's nuclear activities, soothing a sore point in
talks to resuscitate a 2015 deal to curb its program.
اضافة اعلان
With negotiations in
Vienna between Iran and world powers deadlocked, the steps hashed out with IAEA
chief Rafael Grossi on a visit to Tehran leave a chink of hope for US President
Joe Biden's ambition to restore the agreement, known as the JCPOA.
Since Donald Trump's
administration walked away in 2018, Iran has also since retreated from many of
its commitments.
In a joint statement
Sunday, Grossi and Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) chief Mohammad
Eslami — also one of the country's vice presidents — hailed a "spirit of
cooperation and mutual trust", while noting that surveillance was an issue
to be treated "exclusively in a technical manner".
Eslami welcomed
"good and constructive negotiations with Mr Grossi," while again
insisting on the "technical" nature of the bargain, Iran's official
IRNA news agency reported.
Their deal relates to
limits Iran has imposed on the IAEA's ability to monitor various of its
nuclear facilities.
Iran has refused to
provide real-time footage from cameras and other surveillance tools that the UN
agency has installed in these locations.
Under a compromise
deal, the monitoring equipment remains in the agency's custody but the data is
in Iran's possession, and must not be erased as long as the arrangement remains
in force.
Initially agreed for
three months, the compromise was extended by another month and then expired on
June 24.
With no word on next
steps, the IAEA said in a statement last Tuesday that its "verification
and monitoring activities have been seriously undermined" by Tehran's
actions.
But under Sunday's
agreement, "IAEA's inspectors are permitted to service the identified
equipment and replace their storage media which will be kept under the joint
IAEA and (Iran's) AEOI seals in the Islamic Republic of Iran," the joint
statement said.
"The way and the
timing are agreed by the two sides."
The surveillance
issue had heightened tensions at the time the new government of Iran's ultra conservative
President Ebrahim Raisi was taking charge in Tehran.
Iran has also boosted
its stocks of uranium enriched above the levels allowed in the 2015 deal, the
IAEA has said.
A meeting of the UN
agency's board of governors is scheduled for Monday.
"We have decided
to be present at the next meeting and to continue our talks on the
sidelines," Iran's Eslami told IRNA.
Raisi argued in a
statement on Wednesday that his country was "transparent" about its
nuclear activities, which Iran has always insisted are peaceful.
"Naturally, in
the event of a non-constructive approach by the IAEA, it is unreasonable to
expect Iran to respond constructively," he said.
US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken cautioned last Wednesday that, faced with the impasse, the US
was "close" to abandoning its diplomatic efforts.
Israeli Prime
Minister Naftali Bennett on Friday charged that the IAEA report "proves
that Iran is continuing to lie to the world and advance a program to develop
nuclear weapons, while denying its international commitments".
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