Tehran | The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began talks with the Iranian authorities in Tehran on Tuesday, an official source announced, one week before the resumption in Vienna with the major powers of crucial negotiations on the nuclear deal.
Arrived Monday evening in the Iranian capital, Rafael Grossi met in the morning the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (OIEA), Mohammad Eslami, reported the Irna agency.
He is then due to meet for the first time the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in charge of the political aspect of the nuclear issue since the coming to power of a new government.
These talks take place a week before the resumption in Vienna on November 29 of talks between Iran and the great powers, in an attempt to save the 2015 agreement supposed to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
A few hours before Mr. Grossi’s visit, the spokesperson for Iranian diplomacy, Saïd Khatibzadeh, wished for a “constructive” meeting with the UN nuclear gendarme.
“We have always advised the IAEA to stay on the path of technical cooperation and not to let some countries pursue their political goals on behalf of the IAEA,” he said.
Mr. Grossi’s trip comes after the IAEA on Wednesday reported a sharp increase in the stockpile of highly enriched uranium by Tehran, in response to Washington’s reinstatement of sanctions in 2018.
The Vienna agreement, concluded in 2015 between Iran on the one hand and the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, France and Germany on the other, offered Tehran the lifting part of the international sanctions strangling its economy in exchange for a drastic reduction in its nuclear program, placed under strict UN control.
But Washington unilaterally left the agreement in 2018 under President Donald Trump, and reinstated sanctions against Tehran. In return, Iran has gradually abandoned its commitments.
Mr. Grossi’s last visit to Tehran dates back to September 12, and he had only met the head of the OIEA.