U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Seeks Dialogue with New Iranian President

By Francois Murphy

VIENNA (Reuters) – U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi hopes to hold talks with new Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian by November on improving Iran’s cooperation with his agency, he said on Monday.

Several long-standing issues are dogging relations between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), including Tehran’s barring of uranium-enrichment experts on the inspection team and its failure for years to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites.

“He (Pezeshkian) agreed to meet with me at an appropriate juncture,” Grossi said in a statement to a quarterly meeting of his agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors, referring to an exchange after Pezeshkian’s election in July.
“I encourage Iran to facilitate such a meeting in the not-too-distant future so that we can establish a constructive dialogue that leads swiftly to real results,” he said.

With nuclear diplomacy largely stalled between the Iranian presidential election and the U.S. one on Nov. 5, Grossi expressed his desire to make real progress soon.

When asked at a news conference if his reference to the “not-too-distant future” meant before or after the U.S. election, Grossi replied: “No, hopefully before that.”

IAEA board resolutions ordering Iran to cooperate urgently with the investigation into the uranium traces and calling on it to reverse its barring of inspectors have brought little change. Quarterly IAEA reports seen by Reuters on Aug. 29 showed no progress.

Iran responded to the latest resolution in June by announcing an expansion of its enrichment capacity, installing more centrifuges at its Natanz and Fordow sites. At Fordow, where uranium is enriched to up to 60% purity, near the weapons-grade threshold, two of eight new cascades of advanced IR-6 centrifuges were installed shortly after notifying the IAEA of its plans. Two weeks later, another two cascades were installed.

By the end of the quarter, IAEA reports indicated that Iran had completed the installation of all eight new cascades but had not yet brought them online. At the Natanz site, enriching to up to 5% purity, 15 new cascades of advanced models had been brought online.

“What we see is that there is some work, but nothing that indicates a rush to a fast implementation of a big increase in terms of enrichment production,” Grossi said.

Iran has accelerated its nuclear activities since 2019, following the abandonment of an agreement by then-U.S. President Donald Trump, which had limited Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.

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