The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog will go to Tehran to meet with Iranian authorities and urge them to give the agency access to a number of suspected sites with unexplained nuclear material, the agency announced Saturday.
Director-General Rafael Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who took office in December, will pay his first visit to Iran on Monday, as the US increases pressure on Tehran and calls on the international community to smarter against the regime’s nuclear ambitions.
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“I have decided to come to Tehran in person so that I can reinforce the importance of cooperation and the full implementation of all commitments and commitments for safeguard measures with the IAEA,” Grossi said in a statement.
“My aim is that my meetings in Tehran will lead to concrete progress in addressing the exceptional issues that the Agency has related to safeguard measures in Iran and in particular resolving the issue of access,” he said.
The access requested by the IAEA is directed at two sides since Iran signed the 2015 nuclear deal – formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA). These sites are thought to contain undeclared nuclear material.
The Trump administration took the US out of the deal in 2018, and has reintroduced a number of sanctions in Iran as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign. This week, it triggered a lawsuit contained in UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that all UN sanctions in Iran will “snapback”, including an arms embargo that expired soon and that the Council failed last week to extend.
Both US allies and opponents have argued that since the US left the deal, it has no legal basis to call for snapback. But the US states that while it left the deal, it still retains rights under Resolution 2231. The movement sets a countdown of 30 days until the sanctions are re-introduced.
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At the UN on Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mentioned the difficulties the IAEA has in getting Iran to grant access.
“This is happening, of course, at a time when Iran is refusing to allow the IAEA to monitor sites suspected of undeclared nuclear activity that were once part of Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” he said.
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He also took direct action against the United Kingdom, France and Germany for not supporting enlargement, while accusing them of privately telling him they did not want the embargo lifted.
‘And yet today, at last, they provided no alternatives, no options. “Not a country, but the United States has the courage and conviction to implement a resolution,” he said. ‘Instead, she opted for the ayatollahs. Their actions threaten the people of Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and indeed their own citizens. ”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
