The Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said that the dialogue between the agency and Iran has resumed to clarify what he called the pending preventive measures issues, as part of efforts to revive the Iranian nuclear agreement, while Tehran said that it will enhance cooperation with the agency if it deals with it technically rather than politically.

Grossi said on Monday that he met last night with the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami, in the Austrian capital, Vienna, the first meeting of its kind at this level between the IAEA and Tehran.

Grossi had said at the agency's 66th annual conference that communication between the agency and Tehran had been cut off since last June.

And a tweet from the Director of the Atomic Energy Agency, accompanied by pictures of his meeting with Islami, stated that "the dialogue with Iran has resumed to clarify the issue of the three undeclared Iranian sites, in which traces of uranium were previously found."

Dialogue has restarted with #Iran on clarification of outstanding safeguards issues.

I received Mohammad Eslami, Vice-President and Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran 🇮🇷, during @IAEAorg's #IAEAGC.

pic.twitter.com/94sIgMUeOS

— Rafael MarianoGrossi (@rafaelmgrossi) September 26, 2022

In a report issued on September 7, the agency toughened its tone toward Tehran, saying it was unable to guarantee the "purely peaceful nature" of Tehran's nuclear program.

Iranian position

On the other hand, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said that his country will strengthen its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency if it deals technically, not politically.

Iran demands that the International Atomic Energy Agency close the file of unauthorized sites to allow an understanding to be achieved in talks to revive the nuclear agreement, and Iran describes the agency's investigations into the file of unauthorized sites as politicized investigations.

On Monday, the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization said - at the opening of the annual conference of the Atomic Energy Agency - that his country "expects the agency to abide by its credibility, and to stop working based on allegations," explaining that Iran accepts a verification regime for its facilities for a specific period.

Eslami stressed that there are no unauthorized nuclear activities in Iran.


Nuclear negotiations

During Abdullahian's meeting in New York with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez Barilla, the Iranian minister added that Washington has not yet been able to take a realistic decision in the nuclear negotiations, and that his country will not leave the negotiating table because diplomacy is still working well, as he put it.

The Iranian foreign minister stressed that reaching an agreement to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal "will not be out of reach if Washington has the will to make a decision."

US State Department spokesman Ned Price described the Iranian response to the proposals made by the European Union to revive the nuclear agreement as a step backwards, adding that there is no chance of concluding the agreement anytime soon.

Price added on Monday that his country made it clear to Iran that it had certain conditions, and that it would not accept a bad agreement, as he put it.

It should be noted that the negotiations to revive the Iranian nuclear agreement have reached a dead end in light of Tehran and Washington's adherence to their position on the outstanding issues, most notably the guarantees that the United States will not withdraw from the agreement again, as signed in 2018 during the rule of former US President Donald Trump.