The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, is expected in Iran on Wednesday evening, the official IRNA news agency announced. The head of the UN agency “will arrive on Wednesday at the official invitation of the Islamic Republic of Iran”she said, and the meetings with senior Iranian officials will take place on Thursday.
His visit is due to take place after Donald Trump's new victory in the US presidential election. During his first term, the United States withdrew in 2018 from an international agreement supposed to regulate Iran's atomic activities in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions. All attempts have failed in recent years to revive the agreement concluded in 2015 with the European E3 countries (France, United Kingdom, Germany), the United States, Russia and China.
Iran's nuclear program has continued to gain momentum ever since, even though Tehran denies wanting to acquire an atomic bomb. According to the IAEA, the Islamic Republic has significantly increased its reserves of enriched materials to 60%, close to the 90% needed to develop an atomic weapon. But since new reformist President Massoud Pezeshkian took office in August, Tehran has expressed its wish to relaunch negotiations to revive the agreement.
Rafael Grossi's last visit to Iran dates back to May. He then called for measures “concrete” to help strengthen cooperation on Iran's nuclear program during a news conference in Isfahan province, where the Natanz uranium enrichment plant is located. At the end of September, he said that Iran seemed willing to resume negotiations on nuclear power, but that it was currently refusing the return to its sites of inspectors whose accreditation had been withdrawn.
