A meeting on the eve of the deadline.

The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi arrived in Tehran on Saturday February 20.

This is while Iran has set February 21 as the deadline for the lifting of US sanctions and for inspections by the nuclear gendarme.

The February 21 deadline was decided by the Iranian parliament to restrict certain IAEA inspections of non-nuclear facilities, including suspicious military sites, if the United States does not lift its sanctions imposed by the previous administration of Donald Trump in 2018.

A possible limitation of inspections would come into force on Tuesday February 23, the president of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (OIEA), Ali Akbar Salehi said on Saturday.

Iran nevertheless stressed that it would not stop collaborating with the IAEA, the UN "nuclear watchdog", and would not expel its inspectors.

These inspections are provided for in the 2015 international agreement, which is supposed to frame the Iranian nuclear program, from which Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States in 2018 by reinstating the American sanctions that are strangling the Iranian economy.

Rafael Grossi was received in Tehran by Iranian Ambassador to the IAEA Kazem Gharibabadi and IAEA official Behrouz Kamalvandi tweeted first.

Rafael Grossi's visit is scheduled until Sunday February 21.

The IAEA official said he would meet with "senior Iranian officials to find a mutually acceptable solution (...)", so that the IAEA can "continue with essential verification activities in Iran".

"At tomorrow's (Sunday) meeting with Mr. Grossi, IAEA considerations in the framework of the safeguards agreement and bilateral cooperation will be examined and discussed," Salehi added.

"Cautious diplomacy"

The visit also comes after the appeal launched on Friday February 19 by the American President, Joe Biden, for the European powers to work in concert with the United States to respond to Iran's "destabilizing activities", a day after committed to resuming talks on its nuclear program.

Joe Biden told the Munich security conference that the United States would work closely with its allies to deal with Iran, an approach contrasting with the one-sided and aggressive one of his predecessor Donald Trump.

"The threat of nuclear proliferation still requires careful diplomacy and cooperation between us," Biden told his European allies, also parties to the Iran nuclear deal.

"This is why we have declared that we are ready to resume negotiations of the 5 + 1 group on the Iranian nuclear program", he added, referring to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (States (United States, France, Great Britain, Russia and China) plus Germany.

"Diplomatic initiatives"

Tehran has repeatedly declared that it is ready to return to its nuclear commitments on condition that Washington takes the first step in lifting the sanctions that are suffocating its economy.

In response to the American withdrawal from the agreement, Tehran freed itself from several of its commitments to the agreement as of 2019, while asking for a relaxation of sanctions.

Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabii said on Saturday that Tehran's latest nuclear move would not prevent it from responding to any show of goodwill from Washington, and expressed optimism about the ongoing diplomatic process.

This is "neither against our commitments nor an obstacle to a proportionate and appropriate response to any American action proving (its) good will," he wrote in an editorial published in the government daily, Iran.

"We can predict with certainty that diplomatic initiatives will work well," Rabii said, deeming "diplomatic back and forth" as "the natural prelude to all parties returning to commitments, including the lifting of all sanctions in the near future ".

With AFP

>> 

To read also:

Iranian nuclear: Washington multiplies the gestures of goodwill vis-à-vis Tehran

The summary of the week

France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 application

google-play-badge_FR