IAEA chief warns Iran nuclear surveillance is no longer ‘intact’

IAEA chief warns Iran nuclear surveillance is no longer ‘intact’

Rafael Grossi seeks an urgent meeting with Tehran’s foreign minister as part of an effort to resurrect the global pact

Financial Times – Oct 20th, 2021

Katrina Manson in Washington

The head of the UN’s atomic watchdog has warned that stop-gap measures to monitor Iran’s nuclear activities are no longer “intact” amid concerns that talks to resurrect a global agreement to curb Tehran’s atomic work have stalled. Rafael Grossi, director-general of the IAEA, told the Financial Times in an interview he urgently needed to meet Tehran’s foreign minister to discuss proposals to reinvigorate the fragile surveillance program. “I haven’t been able to talk to [Iran’s new] foreign minister,” Grossi told the FT during a visit to Washington. “I need to have this contact at the political level. This is indispensable. Without it, we cannot understand each other.” The continued surveillance of Tehran’s nuclear activity through cameras and other devices has sustained hope that a global deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear activity and lift sanctions can be resurrected. In 2018, Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 multi-party nuclear pact with Iran and imposed hefty new sanctions. Tehran has since rejected key monitoring efforts while increasing the volume and purity of its fissile material. The country has always denied it is trying to build a nuclear weapon. Joe Biden’s administration is seeking to re-enter the deal but six rounds of indirect talks have stalled since the election of President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric, in June. Grossi said Iran was “within a few months” of having enough material for a nuclear weapon, although he said he did not think it was pursuing one.

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https://www.ft.com/content/ad8526f0-da73-48cc-ab90-4a3f146158d4