The Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said that Iran's nuclear program is progressing rapidly, and that the agency's monitoring of what is happening there is very limited, while Tehran said it wanted economic guarantees from Washington to revive the Iranian nuclear agreement so that it would not be "bitten twice."

"The bottom line is that for about 5 weeks I had a very limited vision with a rapidly advancing nuclear program," Grossi added in an interview published today, Friday, by the Spanish newspaper "El Pais."

Western powers warn that Iran is close to being able to speed up building a nuclear bomb, while Iran denies its desire to do so in the first place.

"The agency needs to rebuild a database without which any deal (the Iran nuclear deal) is going to have a very shaky foundation, because if we don't know what's out there, how can we determine how much material we export and how many centrifuges we're going to leave unused?" Grossi said.

And last June, Iran began removing all the surveillance equipment and cameras of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which were placed under the nuclear agreement signed in 2015 with the world powers (the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China) in order to peacefully monitor the Iranian nuclear program.


Commenting on Tehran's decision to remove the surveillance equipment, Grossi said last June that it could deal a "fatal blow" to the chances of reviving the agreement, which the United States unilaterally withdrew from in 2018 and re-imposed tough economic sanctions on Tehran.

Iranian caution

On the other hand, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said that his country wants to obtain economic guarantees from the United States in order to revive the nuclear agreement, in order not to be "bitten from the hole twice", in reference to Washington's withdrawal from the agreement and its imposition of severe economic sanctions that have evaporated. With it, all the economic benefits included in the 2015 agreement benefit Tehran.

Abdullahian added in an interview with Iranian state television on Thursday evening, "Now at this stage we have a text ready before us (to revive the agreement). We agree with the various parties on 95% of its content."

Iran and the signatory powers to the agreement began talks to revive it in April 2021 in Vienna, with the indirect participation of the United States and the facilitation of the European Union.

Despite achieving great progress in the negotiations, the talks were suspended last March, with points of disagreement remaining between Tehran and Washington that the negotiating parties have not yet been able to bridge the gap.

The main differences between Tehran and Washington are related to Iran's desire to remove organizations linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the US list of terrorist organizations, as well as providing guarantees that future US administrations will not withdraw from the nuclear agreement again.​

Doha talks

At the end of last June, the US and Iranian sides held indirect talks in Doha, facilitated by the European Union, which ended without progress.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs @MBA_AlThani_ receives a phone call from the Iranian Foreign Minister #Qatari_Foreign Affairs pic.twitter.com/8eM7SUSUFG

— Qatari Foreign Ministry (@MofaQatar_AR) July 22, 2022

The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs said earlier today, Friday, that Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, affirmed that Qatar seeks to support the parties to the talks to revive the nuclear agreement with the aim of reaching a just solution for all.

The Qatar News Agency (QNA) stated that the Qatari minister received a call from Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Abdullahian, in which they discussed the developments of the nuclear negotiations, noting Doha's affirmation of support for talks to revive the nuclear agreement, taking into account the concerns of all parties.