IAEA inspectors to visit second Iran site later this month: Grossi
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi says the agency's inspectors will visit the second of two sites in Iran later in September for verification purposes based on an agreement reached between the two sides late last month.
"We reached agreement on the resolution of the safeguards implementation issues raised by the Agency. The Agency subsequently conducted a complementary access, under the Additional Protocol, at one of the two locations specified by us," Grossi said during his introductory statement to the IAEA's 35-member Board of Governors on Monday.
"Our inspectors took environmental samples which will be analyzed. A complementary access at the second specified location will take place later this month," he added.
He noted that during his visit to Tehran, he held talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and other senior officials "aimed at making concrete progress in addressing the Agency’s outstanding questions, and in particular at resolving the issue of access to two locations in Iran."
At the end of Grossi's two-day trip to Tehran on August 26, Iran and the UN agency issued a joint statement on their agreements and the results of high-level talks between the two sides.
"After intensive bilateral consultations, Iran and the IAEA reached an agreement on the resolution of the safeguards implementation issues specified by the IAEA, in good faith. In this regard, Iran is voluntarily providing the IAEA with access to the two locations specified by the IAEA and facilitating the IAEA verification activities to resolve these issues," read part of the statement.
In his Monday speech, the UN nuclear agency chief also welcomed the Iran-IAEA agreement and expressed hope that it would "reinforce cooperation and enhance mutual trust."
Grossi added that the agency would continue to verify the non-diversion of nuclear material declared by Iran under its Safeguards Agreement, saying, "Evaluations regarding the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities for Iran continue."
Meanwhile, the IAEA chief told reporters after opening the Board of Governors' meeting that analyzing environmental samples collected at the first site would take "not less than a couple of months, two or three months maybe."
Iran’s permanent representative to the Vienna-based international organizations Kazem Gharibabadi said on September 4 the latest IAEA report envisaged "positive and constructive" prospects in bilateral cooperation.
“In terms of content, the report has explicitly portrayed a clear image of the current status of [bilateral] cooperation and envisaged positive and constructive prospects in relations between Iran and the agency,” he told reporters.
The Iranian official said it was expected that an overwhelming majority of the IAEA member states and the Board of Governors would approve of the constructive nature of the relationship between Tehran and the agency.
Under the 2015 accord, the IAEA monitors Iran's nuclear activities and regularly updates its members through providing reports.
The visit by the IAEA head to Tehran took place over two months after the Board of Governors on June 19 passed a resolution, put forward by Britain, France and Germany – the three European signatories to the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to push for inspections of two sites that the trio claims may have been used for undeclared nuclear activities in the early 2000s.
It was the Israeli regime’s spy service that first came up with the allegations of such activity at the two sites. Iran has, however, strictly rejected the allegations.
Read more:
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