IAEA Chief Eager to Interact with Iran’s New Admin

In an interview with Al Arabiya television channel, Grossi expounded on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s plans to work with the Iranian administration.

Asked if he has received a response from Tehran about his desire to visit Iran and hold a meeting with Pezeshkian, Grossi said, “Yes. I have received a reply from the new president, Pezeshkian, where, concrete dialogue in order to have the credible assurances and the guarantees about the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program.”

“As you know, there are points that still need to be clarified and answers to be provided to the IAEA, which have not been given so far. So there is a need, there is an expectation in the international community about this, and I was glad to receive a letter from the new (Iranian) president saying that he agreed that we should meet and that we should try to do it at the right time. I hope the right time for him is as soon as possible,” Grossi added.

“I am ready to come to Tehran and to continue the dialogue and of course to engage with the new president as I have done with his predecessors,” he said.

Grossi also dismissed the notion that there has been a silence from the IAEA regarding the Iranian nuclear file after the passing away of the former Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, in May, saying, “I think this was the result of the natural unfolding of events. When you have the loss of a president and a foreign minister with whom I was in very direct, and I would say regular contact. Don't forget that I had visited Tehran in May, and at that time I had had important, long, very substantive exchanges with late foreign minister Amirabdollahian and on a previous occasion with President Raisi.”

Asked about the recent comments from Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) cannot be revived and that it needs to be reopened and some parts of it revised, Grossi said, “Well, again, I would make a distinction here. I would say we can bring positions closer. There are possibilities to come to agreements. But if you put it in terms of the JCPOA being revived, I think you should consider that the JCPOA in a certain sense has been superseded by the realities of the program in Iran. You must remember that this JCPOA spoke about an old generation of centrifuges, which is, of course, no longer the defining type of equipment that Iran has today. They have spinning centrifuges that produce much, much more, much faster with a lesser amount of machines.”