TEHRAN -- UN nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi said on Tuesday that he wanted to deepen cooperation with Iran in his talks in Tehran, days before the resumption of negotiations between the Islamic Republic and the remaining signatories to a 2015 nuclear deal to remove the anti-Iran sanctions.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last week issued reports accusing Iran of rough treatment of its inspectors and preventing it from re-installing cameras.
In the past, Grossi has made positive remarks in Tehran and started to air disparaging statements as soon as he has left Iran.
“The agency is seeking to continue and deepen the dialogue with the government of Iran ... We agreed to continue our joint work on transparency and this will continue,” Grossi, who arrived in Tehran on Monday, told a televised news conference.
The Vienna negotiations will resume on Nov. 29, which have been on hold since June, to find ways to reinstate the deal that former U.S. President Donald Trump exited three years ago and then reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran.
After a year of exercising “strategic patience”, Tehran responded by scaling back limits on nuclear activity set by the accord, including rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, refining it to higher fissile purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up output as per an article of the nuclear deal which allowed it to take measures if the other side did not fulfill its obligations.
In September, Western powers at the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors scrapped plans for a resolution against Iran despite raising questions about uranium traces at some sites which the Islamic Republic had answered before and demanding IAEA inspectors access to the TESA Karaj centrifuge component manufacturing workshop to replace the agency’s monitoring cameras there.
The workshop was the victim of apparent sabotage in June in which one of four IAEA cameras there was destroyed.
“Some questions were raised based on documents published by our enemies. These questions have now been answered,” Iran’s nuclear chief, Muhammad Eslami, said after meeting with Grossi.
Grossi later met Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian for the first time, who urged the IAEA to “continue to cooperate with Iran in the context of its technical duties, and avoid taking political positions”.
Diplomats say no action is likely to be taken against Iran when the board meets on Nov. 24.