IAEA director says parties are ‘closer than ever’ to reviving Iran nuclear deal

Aug. 26 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, assured this Friday that the parties are “closer than ever” to reviving the nuclear agreement with Iran after the United States has responded to the final text proposal of the European Union.

“If the deal doesn’t go through, I think we’ll be faced with a challenge: how do we get Iran to agree to the levels of inspection and verification that a program like this, which enriches uranium to fairly close to military-grade levels, requires?” Grossi explained in an interview with Radio France International.

Thus, he explained that the signing of the agreement has to do with “political will.” “If the political will exists, we can shape and modulate the agreements,” adding that if the text is signed from the IAEA they will have “a vast inspection job.”

For his part, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Hosein Amirabdolahian, pointed out, during a meeting with the president of Zanzibar, Hosein Moini, that Tehran has made “many efforts” to try to lift the sanctions.

“If the Americans are realistic, I think that (the situation) can be resolved,” explained the head of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, adding that they are already in “the final stage” of the process, as reported by the agency of Tasnim news.

The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, said Thursday that the US response to the European Union’s final proposal to resume the nuclear deal with Iran is “reasonable.”

“The American counterproposal is reasonable and the ball is now in Tehran. We hope it comes out,” said the head of community diplomacy on the negotiations to return to the Iranian nuclear pact after Washington’s response to the EU proposal.

Said pact, considered key to security in the region, has been badly damaged since former President Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to leave in 2018. The negotiations seek to restore strict limits on Iran’s nuclear activity in exchange for the United States relaxing some of the its sanctions on the economy of the Persian republic, including the one imposed on its oil exports.