Iran agreed to rehabilitate surveillance systems at its nuclear facilities, which will remove an obstacle to the reactivation of the pact destined to ease sanctions on the country in exchange for it limiting its atomic activity, announced the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Argentine Rafael Grossi.
“We have reached an agreement for the cameras and surveillance systems to work again,” Grossi told a news conference in Vienna after returning from a visit to Tehran.
Furthermore, “Iran will voluntarily will allow the IAEA to carry out further relevant verification and monitoring activities,” The agency added in a statement, in which it specified that “the conditions will be agreed between the two parties during a technical meeting that will be held soon in Tehran.”
Grossi explained that he will increase the number of visits by 50% IAEA inspection to the Fordo underground plantwhere enriched uranium particles were detected at a level much higher than agreed and close to that necessary to make an atomic bomb, according to the AFP and Sputnik news agencies.
Earlier, Grossi had claimed that he had “constructive talks” with Iranian officials.
“With the constructive talks we are having now, I am convinced that we will open the way to important agreements,” Grossi said during a news conference with Mohammad Eslami, head of Iran’s atomic energy organization.
Iran denies wanting to make a nuclear bomb and justified itself by saying that there were “involuntary fluctuations” in the enrichment process
The two-day visit by the Argentine diplomat, who arrived in the capital Tehran on Friday, comes amid efforts by the Vienna-based UN agency to seek greater cooperation from Iran on its nuclear activities.
According to an IAEA report seen by the AFP news agency, particles of 83.7% enriched uranium were found, just shy of the 90% required to make an atomic bombin the Fordo underground plant, about 100 kilometers south of Tehran.
Iran denies wanting to make a nuclear bomb and justified itself by saying that there were “involuntary fluctuations” in the enrichment process.
An international agreement signed in 2015 promised Iran relief from economic sanctions in exchange for limiting its nuclear activity.
The restrictions included in the pact included a uranium enrichment threshold of 3.67% and were to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
The restrictions included in the pact included a uranium enrichment threshold of 3.67% and were to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
But the United States unilaterally withdrew from the pact in 2018 under the presidency of Donald Trump and imposed new sanctions on Tehran, which gradually backed away from the terms of the agreement.
This brief visit by Grossi comes almost a year after his last trip to Tehran in March 2022.when an agreement seemed possible to resume negotiations between the great powers and Iran regarding its nuclear program.
However, in a geopolitical context shaken by the war in Ukraine, the opportunity fell through, and since then concern has grown in the United States, Europe and Israel about the possibility that Iran is capable of producing atomic bombs.