TEHRAN - Iran and the UN atomic agency on Sunday announced the IAEA will keep up surveillance of Tehran’s nuclear activities, soothing a sore point in talks to resuscitate a 2015 deal to curb its programme.
With negotiations in Vienna between Iran and world powers deadlocked, the steps hashed out with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi on a visit to Tehran leave a chink of hope for US President Joe Biden’s ambition to restore the agreement, known as the JCPOA.
Since Donald Trump’s administration walked away in 2018, Iran has since also retreated from many of its commitments.
In a joint statement Sunday, Grossi and Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) chief Mohammad Eslami -- also one of the country’s vice presidents -- hailed a “spirit of cooperation and mutual trust”, while noting that surveillance was an issue to be treated “exclusively in a technical manner”. Eslami welcomed “good and constructive negotiations with Mr Grossi,” while again insisting on the “technical” nature of the bargain, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.
Their deal relates to limits Iran has imposed on the IAEA’s ability to monitor various of its nuclear facilities.
Iran has refused to provide real-time footage from cameras and other surveillance tools that the UN agency has installed in these locations.
Under a compromise deal, the monitoring equipment remains in the agency’s custody but the data is in Iran’s possession, and must not be erased as long as the arrangement remains in force.