Sunday 12th September 2021
Rescue the nuclear deal
IAEA chief consults with new Iranian leadership
Iran has a new president and a new atomic chief – the head of the international atomic energy authority is therefore in Tehran for consultations. The point is to continue negotiations on reactivating the nuclear agreement with Germany and others.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is making a new attempt to get the stalled nuclear dispute with Iran moving. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has traveled to Tehran to meet with Iran’s new nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami and probably also with Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian. It is the IAEA chief’s first visit to Tehran since President Ebrahim Raisi took office last month. Grossi wants to comment on the results after his return.
The background to this is the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program. The latest report by the IAEA, which the supervisory authority presented a few days ago, showed that Tehran had increased the amount of highly enriched uranium again. With this, Iran continues to clearly violate the requirements of the Vienna Atomic Energy Agreement of 2015, which was supposed to prevent it from building an atomic bomb. Tehran has always maintained that its nuclear program is only for civilian purposes.
Iran had recently confirmed its will to continue negotiations to revive the agreement in Vienna. A date for this was not given. The negotiations on the rescue of the nuclear deal, which had been ongoing since April, were interrupted after the change of government in Iran.
The United States withdrew from the treaty under ex-President Donald Trump. The remaining partners in the deal – China, Germany, France, the UK and Russia – are seeking US return to the deal. At the same time, Iran should also comply with its conditions again.
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