IAEA agreement with Iran not subject to Vienna talks: Grossi

Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg news agency on Fri., Rafael Grossi the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency in response to a question about Iran’s willingness to extend the technical agreement with IAEA said, “I have not received an offer up to the present time regarding extension of the nuclear agreement, which will expire on June 24, but I hope we will have a direct exchange of views with Iran as soon as possible.”

Referring to the Vienna talks to revive JCPOA, he pointed out that although IAEA hopes to reach an agreement between parties to JCPOA, Vienna talks are separate from the technical agreement made between the IAEA and Iran.

If the technical agreement with Iran is not renewed and information related to Iranian sites is deleted, an information black hole will be created in Iran’s nuclear activities from February onwards (where information has not been delivered to the IAEA), but “I hope this will not happen.”

Although the IAEA chief acknowledged that Iran or any other country could enrich uranium, he reiterated that enrichment at the level that Iran is doing is unusual in a non-weapons program.

This is while that Iran has repeatedly stressed that it has a peaceful goal of pursuing its nuclear demands and that the current situation is the result of a lack of commitments by the United States and European partners to JCPOA.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for the Political Affairs Seyyed Abbas Araghchi and lead negotiator at the talks in Vienna reiterated that “fundamental differences” are outstanding and urged Washington to “rectify what it’s done in the past” in order for the discussions to progress further.