The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog warned this week that the window to “engineer” a diplomatic solution to stop Iran's nuclear program is starting to “shrink.”
International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi gave an urgent message in an interview with AFP at the COP29 climate summit in Baku.
“The Iranian government needs to understand that the international situation is becoming increasingly tense and its room for maneuver is starting to shrink,” he said.
“It is essential that we find a way to reach a diplomatic solution.”
International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi addresses the media at the Board of Directors meeting in Vienna, Austria, September 9, 2024. (Reuters/Leonhard Foeger/File photo)
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The warning comes ahead of Grossi's visit to Tehran this week for “high-level” talks with Iranian officials, where he will comply with IAEA safeguards parameters by 2023. They were scheduled to hold “technical discussions” on Tehran's agreement based on March's joint statement.
Grossi arrived in Tehran on Wednesday, and state media broadcast footage of the IAEA chief meeting with Behruz Kamalvandi, spokesman for Iran's state-run nuclear agency, upon his arrival.
Ahead of the meeting, Grossi said in a statement on Sunday: “It is essential that we make substantial progress in the implementation of the joint statement agreed with Iran in March 2023. In that regard, my visit to Tehran will be of great significance. It will become important.” . ”
The IAEA is further authorized to inspect all nuclear facilities as part of its safeguards obligations, but Grossi told AFP: “We need to see more.” .
“Given the scale, depth and ambition of Iran's plans, we need to find ways to raise the profile of Iranian institutions,” he added.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei tours the inside of a uranium factory. (Getty Images)
Since the US withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, in May 2018, Iran's nuclear Concerns over development remain high.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that Grossi is expected to ask Iran for greater access to its nuclear facilities and an explanation for traces of uranium found at undeclared facilities.
The IAEA director general said that Iran's nuclear program has been running virtually unchecked since Iran stopped complying with its commitments under the JCPOA, and that it has since increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium metal to the 60% purity level. We've been sounding the alarm for months. The necessary steps to reach weapons-grade uranium enriched to 90% purity.
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Grossi's visit comes at a crucial time for geopolitical relations with President-elect Donald Trump, who returns to the Oval Office next January and is expected to take a hard line on Tehran.
During his first term, President Trump claimed the deal was a “terrible deal” cemented by Secretary of State John Kerry under the Obama administration and signed by Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. President Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the agreement.
After the U.S. withdrawal, Tehran claimed the deal was null and void, saying it was null and void. no longer bound Under the International Atomic Energy Agreement.
Despite the US withdrawal, other international co-signatories, including Russia, urged Tehran to continue adhering to the JCPOA, but amid rising tensions with the West over the invasion of Ukraine, Russia The government stopped diplomatic encouragement.
Grossi told AFP that the deal is currently an “empty shell”.
On May 6, 2024, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi met with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdullahian in Tehran, Iran. (Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters)
Benam Ben Taleblou, an Iran expert and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the best way to stop Iran from pursuing its nuclear ambitions is to restore the nuclear deal and rein in the Biden administration's ambitions to rely on the Cold War. It's about getting over it. -Nuclear deterrence tactics of the era.
“The irreversible, knowledge-based nuclear advances that Iran has made under Biden's Maximum Respect policy, even if it's just a deal with Iran, are actually meaningful,” he told Fox News Digital. “It closes the window to something.” “The incoming Trump administration will face an increasingly risk-tolerant country on the nuclear threshold, the Islamic Republic, which will either seek to abuse this position or weaponize it. Probably.
“Deterring and confronting such regimes will require overcoming Washington's obsession with agreements and embracing other tools of national power.”
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But the IAEA chief said that even though the president is currently operating within a tense geopolitical framework of Western unity against Russia and Iran, amid the Ukraine war and Israel's fight against Iranian-backed proxies. He said he was not concerned about the possibility of President Trump becoming president again.
“I have already worked with the first Trump administration and we have worked well together,” he said.
