March 4 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Iranian authorities and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced this Saturday an agreement to apply new control mechanisms to guarantee the civilian nature of the Iranian nuclear program and to reactivate mechanisms hitherto suspended, such as the operation of surveillance cameras in various nuclear facilities.
The IAEA Secretary General, Rafael Grossi, recalled that “in recent months there has been a reduction in monitoring activities”. “The surveillance systems were not working, so we have agreed to make them work again,” Grossi explained from Vienna after returning from a two-day trip to Iran.
“It is a very technical question for which the specific way to restore it will have to be agreed, but it is very, very important. It is very, very important,” he insisted.
Previously, the IAEA had published a joint statement, also signed by Tehran, advancing that it had agreed to “apply new appropriate verification and surveillance measures.” “The modalities will be agreed between both parties during a technical meeting to be held soon in Tehran,” they said.
The document was released during Grossi’s two-day visit to Tehran, who met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi; the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hosein Amirabdolahian or the president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami.
“Interactions between the IAEA and Iran will be carried out in a spirit of collaboration and in full accordance with the IAEA’s competencies and the rights and obligations of the Islamic Republic of Iran, based on the comprehensive guarantee agreement,” the joint text explains.
Likewise, Iran has expressed its “willingness to continue with its cooperation and provide more information and access to attend to the pending issues” related to the three nuclear centers that are the object of the pact.
Grossi’s trip comes days after the IAEA said Iran enriched uranium to 83.7 percent at the Fordo plant, well above the 60 percent agreed in the 2015 deal but below what is needed to make weapons. nuclear, although Tehran indicated that the differences have been resolved and that the statements concern “a particle that cannot be seen even under a microscope.”
Iran has announced the withdrawal of its commitments on several points of the 2015 nuclear agreement after the United States unilaterally withdrew from the pact in 2018, although Iranian authorities have defended that these steps can be reversed if the United States withdraws the agreements. sanctions and returns to the agreement. The cameras were disabled and removed from the nuclear facilities in June 2022.
