IAEA chief plans to visit Iran soon

Rafael Grossi stressed that preparations for potential talks need to start now in order to get more information about Iran’s activities.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi intends to visit Iran in the coming weeks in order to lay the groundwork for talks between the West and Tehran on Iran’s nuclear program.

“What I see is an expressed willingness to re-engage with us in a more meaningful fashion,” Grossi told Reuters in an interview. He stressed that preparations for potential talks need to start now in order to get more information about Iran’s activities. The IAEA chief also added that he was hoping to visit Iran as early as October.

Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the Iranian delegation led by President Masoud Pezeshkian will try to launch a new round of talks on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Tehran’s nuclear program on the side-lines of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly.

Iran’s nuclear deal

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany struck a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 to address the crisis over its nuclear program. Then-US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018, while incumbent President Joe Biden has repeatedly signalled his willingness to bring the US back into the nuclear deal.

Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, the US and France have been in talks with Iran in Vienna since April 2021, seeking to restore the JCPOA in its original form. In November 2022, Grossi said the latest round of talks with Iranian officials ended in the Austrian capital without achieving any specific results.