IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi in an interview called on the world community to resume dialogue with Iran and not ignore Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
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“It is necessary to recreate the system of dialogue with Iran… Attention… may, of course, be focused on something else. But this does not solve the problem. It may even make them more acute in the sense that there is a feeling of a certain indifference… “People may not pay attention to (Iran’s nuclear ambitions), but the problem exists,” Grossi said.
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He also noted that the situation around Iran’s nuclear program is “very uncertain” and called on the countries to “renew interaction.”
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According to Grossi, one of the obstacles to nuclear negotiations with Iran is domestic distractions. He pointed to the “political situation in individual countries” that prevents some of them from fully participating in the negotiations. However, he did not specify which countries he had in mind.
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Grossi said that an attempt to return the Iran nuclear deal to the framework of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will not work, a new framework is needed.
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“Trying to bring (the nuclear deal) back into the framework of the JCPOA will not work… You can still call it the JCPOA, but it should be JCPOA 2.0 or something else, because you will have to adapt,” Grossi said.
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In 2015, the UK, Germany, China, Russia, the US, France and Iran entered into a nuclear deal – the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which included the lifting of sanctions in exchange for limits on Iran’s nuclear program. The United States, under Donald Trump, withdrew from the JCPOA in May 2018 and restored sanctions against Tehran. In response, Iran announced a phased reduction in its obligations under the agreement, abandoning restrictions on nuclear research, centrifuges and uranium enrichment levels.
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Negotiations were held in Vienna on the renewal of the JCPOA and the lifting of Washington’s sanctions against Tehran. In December 2021, the parties reached agreement on two draft agreements, in which the European side included Iran’s positions. According to Iranian representative Bagheri Kyani, the negotiations were successful, but US State Department spokesman Ned Price assessed the progress in Vienna as modest, calling on Tehran to take the issue seriously. There is currently a pause in the Vienna negotiation process.
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In December 2021, Iran voluntarily allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to replace cameras at the Karaj nuclear facility, which had not previously been given access to install surveillance cameras or confirmation that the facility had not resumed production of rotor tubes and centrifuge bellows. At the same time, Tehran announced that it would provide data from surveillance cameras from a nuclear facility in the city of Karaj only after the lifting of all American sanctions.
