The director of the UN atomic agency will visit Iran this Sunday to discuss the latest violations of the nuclear pact signed in 2015

The director general of the UN nuclear agency, the Argentinian Rafael Grossi, goes to Tehran this Saturday to discuss with the Iranian authorities the latest violations of the atomic pact signed in 2015.

The trip was announced by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which clarified that Grossi will meet Iranian vice president and head of the country’s nuclear agency Mohamad Eslami on Sunday.

Grossi will offer a press conference tomorrow afternoon in Vienna – around 6.30 p.m. GMT, according to the IAEA.

Minutes before the IAEA, the permanent representative of Russia to this agency, formalized, Mikhail Ulyanov, announced the trip in a Twitter message.

“The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, will fly to Iran today,” wrote Ulyanov, who is also the Russian negotiator in talks to revive 2015 atomic pact between Iran and six major powers.

“He is expected to return to Vienna on Monday morning to report on the outcome of his visit to the Board of Governors,” the diplomat added.

The IAEA revealed this week that Iran continues to violate the 2015 agreement, continues to enrich uranium to levels close to those needed to make atomic bombs, and the verification work of nuclear inspectors is increasingly difficult.

In addition to denouncing the growing inability to verify Iran’s nuclear program, the IAEA has reported that Iran is currently accumulating 10 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium, much closer to the 90% needed to develop a nuclear weapon than the 3.67% that the 2015 nuclear deal imposed as a cap..

These disclosures may make it even more difficult to resume negotiations to resuscitate the aforementioned nuclear pact, which the United States abandoned in 2018 and that Iran began to default a year later in retaliation for the sanctions imposed.

The objective of the negotiations, paralyzed since June, is that United States returns to treaty, known as JCPOA (for its acronym in English), and that Iran complies in its entirety.

The JCPOA set limits on Iran’s civilian atomic program, with the aim of prevent the production of nuclear weapons, while in return Tehran obtains economic benefits from lifting international sanctions.

Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi, warned last Wednesday that IAEA ‘non-constructive’ approach to Iran could harm suspended nuclear negotiations.

Raisí responded, during a telephone interview with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, to the IAEA report which denounces that Iran continues to enrich uranium to levels close to what is necessary to manufacture atomic weapons and blocks international inspections.

“In the event of non-constructive treatment of the IAEA, it is unreasonable to expect Iran to have a constructive response. Non-constructive actions also naturally affect the negotiation process.», Underlined Raisí, according to a press release from the Iranian presidency.

The president also said that “The Islamic Republic’s serious cooperation with the IAEA is a clear example of Iran’s desire for transparency in its nuclear activities”.

Next week begins a Board of Governors of the IAEA and the European Pact Powers, Germany, France and the United Kingdom; and the United States, can present a resolution criticizing Tehran’s lack of cooperation with the agency.

(With information from EFE)

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