Despite his new initiative regarding the safety of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, is sticking to his trip to Tehran planned for this Saturday.

This feeds the expectation that he could clear a heavy stone on the way to an agreement at the Vienna nuclear talks with Iran.

Among other things, Iran is calling for a line to be drawn from certain “issues of the past”, which Tehran believes are politicized.

But that is a promise that should not be an option for the Western negotiators at the Vienna negotiating table, since it would mean interfering with the independence of the IAEA.

Stephen Lowenstein

Political correspondent based in Vienna.

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Should Grossi now find an agreement on his own in Tehran that satisfies both sides, Iran and the atomic energy authority, then this would no longer stand in the way of the Vienna talks.

Grossi confirmed this week that any kind of agreement is possible, but qualified that the IAEA will "never" drop in negotiations a process that has been started because of the need for clarification.

"The only way to get the matter off the table is to clear it up." IAEA inspectors had - presumably acting on tips from an intelligence agency - found nuclear particles at three apparently ancient and abandoned sites in Iran that were never declared to the agency were.

Tehran's answers have so far been classified as insufficient for clarification.

In Vienna, the focus is on a return to the 2015 agreement, which imposed strict limitations and monitoring on Iran's nuclear program and promised sanctions in return.

The United States, under former President Donald Trump, has pulled out of the “deal” and has imposed a dense sanctions network on Iran.

Iran then expanded its nuclear program beyond all limitations.

According to a report this week, it has produced more than 33 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium, bringing it very close to the threshold for building a nuclear bomb.

A spokeswoman for the US State Department recently said that the speed at which Iran is enriching is causing time pressure.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Friday rejected the "hurry" with which the West wants an agreement.

Iran will not give up its red lines, which include guarantees against repeated sanctions.

The Russian representative Mikhail Ulyanov wrote on Twitter that negotiations have been going on for eleven months, "a long and very exhausting marathon", but now it is "almost over".

On another occasion, he said a meeting of ministers, where an agreement would typically be approved, was now very likely.

But he could not say whether on “Saturday, Sunday or Monday”.