The Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency began meeting in Vienna, starting today, Monday, to discuss several files, including the Iranian nuclear program, to which Tehran was invited to give explicit answers.
Tehran has denied knowledge of the existence of a draft resolution on its nuclear program on the agenda of the meeting, which will continue until the end of the week, calling on the agency not to be affected by what it called the pressures of third parties.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that Tehran is not aware of the existence of a draft resolution against it, explaining that his country expects positive positions from the IAEA, stressing that it will respond to any developments in an appropriate manner, as he put it.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman added that his country's nuclear program is peaceful, and that the IAEA reports confirm this.
The Iranian official called on European countries to follow a constructive path and make up for their past mistakes by reaching an agreement.
In the same file, Rafael Grossi, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that there is no progress currently in the ongoing investigation into Iran's nuclear activities.
facts and assumptions
Grossi added, at a press conference in Vienna, that the information gap with the agency is increasing regarding Iran's nuclear activities.
He explained that Iran's accusations to the agency are not true, and that Tehran should explain the reason for the existence of nuclear activities in some sites.
Grossi also said that there are questions that the Iranian side still has to answer about the traces of uranium that were found at undisclosed sites.
He pointed out that the agency does not deal with assumptions and motives with regard to Iran, but rather is concerned with facts and information, he said.
For his part, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, in a press conference in Berlin, with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, that Germany agreed with Israel that Iran should not have nuclear weapons.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid also said that the world must act to confront the growing threat of Iran becoming a nuclear state, and that returning to the nuclear agreement with Iran would be a grave mistake, as he put it.
After a year and a half of discussions aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal from which the United States withdrew in 2018, Berlin, London and Paris on Saturday expressed "serious doubts" about Tehran's intention to revive the accord.
In a statement, the three European countries accused Tehran of "continuing to escalate its nuclear program beyond any reasonable civil justification."
For its part, Iran, which asserts that its nuclear program is purely civilian, considered this declaration "unconstructive."