The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency visited Iran this week during the country’s International Conference on Nuclear Science and Technology and met with Iranian officials.
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi met with Iran’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami this past Tuesday. While Eslami told Iran International that the discussions were “positive and productive,” Grossi told CNN that cooperation from Iran was not where it should be.
“The IAEA is inspecting in Iran, but what I have been saying is that we are not inspecting at the levels, and we did agree, of visibility, that we should be… given the nature of the program,” he said in an interview when asked about negotiations on a deal from March 2023 on expanding inspections on the country’s expanding atomic program.
Reuters on April 30 reported that Grossi was going to Tehran to mend relations between the IAEA and Iran. While the agency’s inspectors continued to do their job in Iran, Grossi wants to resume high-level talks with senior Iranian officials.
During an April press conference in Vienna, Grossi said high-level relations between himself and the Iranian government were “not there at the level that we consider we should be.”
The IAEA chief said Iran is enriching uranium at an elevated rate to 60% purity. This percentage is close to the required purity of 90% for nuclear weapons, while 3.67% is enough for nuclear power stations.
Iran’s conference was scheduled after recent back-and-forth attacks between Iran and Israel after Israel reportedly struck the Iranian consulate in Syria at the beginning of April.
Under the 2015 nuclear agreement the U.S. pulled out of under then-President Donald Trump (R) in 2018, Iran could only enrich uranium up to 3.67%. Iran moved 27 times beyond these restrictions once the United States pulled out and re-imposed sanctions on the country. The Joe Biden administration has so far shown little interest in reentering the accords.
Grossi told reporters at the Vienna press conference that this uranium enrichment “raises questions in the international community.”
