Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Saturday that they wanted to resolve the outstanding issues by adopting a “pragmatic” approach, during the visit of the head of the IAEA to Tehran, in the hope of reviving an agreement concluded in 2015 between Tehran and the major powers.
“We have decided to examine the issues with a pragmatic approach (…), in depth, but also with a clear intention to arrive at (…) a result”, declared the head of the UN body Rafael Grossi, during a press conference with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Eslami.
“We have come to the conclusion that Iran and the IAEA will exchange documents at the latest in Khordad (Iranian month which begins on May 22), in order to resolve these issues (…) as planned in the talks in Vienna” and thus remove the last obstacles, indicated for his part Mohammad Eslami.
Iran’s nuclear program, bone of contention
Rafael Grossi’s crucial visit is part of the efforts in Vienna to save the 2015 agreement. Concluded by Iran on one side, and by the United States, China, France, the Kingdom United, Russia and Germany on the other, this agreement is supposed to prevent Iran from acquiring the atomic bomb, an intention that this country has always denied.
But the United States withdrew from it in 2018 under the presidency of Donald Trump and reinstated its sanctions, which are suffocating the Iranian economy. In response, Tehran has largely freed itself from restrictions on its nuclear activities. In Tehran, Rafael Grossi met Mohammad Eslami, shortly before beginning his talks with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
Before his departure, Rafael Grossi had affirmed that the IAEA “would never give up” its efforts so that Iran provides clarifications on the presence of nuclear material in undeclared sites on its territory. Tehran is calling for the closure of the IAEA investigation to reach a compromise in Vienna that would save the 2015 agreement. “Now that the talks in Vienna are in the final phase, this is one of the red lines of Iran to definitively close the file of these allegations so as not to cause more problems for our country”, added Mohammad Eslami.
