News - Middle East: Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi says he has put forth a series of proposals to senior Iranian officials aimed at enhancing cooperation between Iran and the agency and resolving safeguards issues.

“I proposed a set of concrete practical measures for the revitalization of the 4 March 2023 Joint Statement with [the] aim of restoring process of confidence building and increasing transparency,” the IAEA chief said.

He, however, did not provide any details of the proposals. 

At the end of a two-day visit in March 2023, Grossi and Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), issued a joint statement in which the two sides agreed to take steps aimed at facilitating enhanced cooperation and expediting the resolution of outstanding safeguards issues.

Both sides also agreed that bilateral interaction will be carried out in a spirit of collaboration, and in full conformity with the competencies of the IAEA and the rights and obligations of Iran based on the comprehensive Safeguards Agreement.

Moreover, Iran expressed in the statement its readiness to "allow the IAEA to implement further appropriate verification and monitoring activities" on a voluntary basis.

Earlier on Monday, Grossi arrived in Tehran to attend an international nuclear conference and hold high-level talks with the country’s senior nuclear and political officials.

Grossi is scheduled to meet with the AEOI chief, during the visit and also to participate in the International Conference on Nuclear Sciences and Technologies (ICNST) in the central province of Isfahan.

Iran and the IAEA are in a dispute triggered by the agency’s Israeli-influenced accusations against Tehran’s peaceful nuclear activities, with the UN atomic agency insisting on investigating what it claims to be “uranium traces” found at “undeclared nuclear sites” in Iran.

The row turned into a sticking point in the talks aimed at reviving the 2018 US-abandoned nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

In 2019, Iran started to roll back the limits it had accepted under the landmark nuclear deal with world powers that had been signed in 2015. The decision came a year after the US withdrew from the agreement and re-imposed sanctions on Tehran. 

Source: Press TV