IAEA’s Grossi heads to Iran
Ahead of agency board meeting in Vienna next week
The head of the UN atomic watchdog agency Rafael Mariano Grossi will travel to Iran to meet with the new head of Iran’s atomic energy organization on Sunday, the Agency said today.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi will meet with Vice-President of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Head of the AEOI, Mohammad Eslami, in Tehran on Sunday,” IAEA spokesman Frederik Dahl said in a press statement Saturday (Sept. 11). “Director General Grossi is expected to hold a press conference at Vienna airport around 2030 on Sunday evening.”
The trip comes ahead of the IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna next week (Sept. 13-17), and amid intensive American/European/Russian diplomacy on how to deal with growing IAEA concerns about its ability to monitor Iran’s nuclear activities. US Iran envoy Rob Malley held consultations with Russian and European counterparts in Moscow and Paris this past week on the matter, and how to get Iran to return to stalled talks on reviving full implementation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, that broke off in June.
The IAEA this month reported growing problems monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities. But new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has suggested that censure of Iran at the board meeting next week would result in Iran refusing to return to talks on reviving full compliance with the nuclear deal, at least for some time.
“Non-constructive actions naturally disrupt the negotiation process as well,” Raisi told European Council President Charles Michel on Sept. 8, according to an Iranian readout of the call on the Iranian presidential website.
Russia has also argued against a censure move at the board next week, and in favor of intensifying diplomatic efforts to get the talks on reviving the deal back on track.
“There should be no illusion. If a draft resolution on Iran is tabled in the IAEA Board of Governors, Russia will vote against," Russia’s envoy to the IAEA Mikhail Ulyanov wrote on Twitter Friday. "There is no need for a resolution which would be not only senseless but extremely detrimental. Let’s better count on diplomacy."