Iran’s official visit from IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has come and gone. Iranian officials say it was a “constructive” meeting, and both sides agreed to keep meeting their legal commitments.
The meeting came amid US pushes against Iran at the UN, though both sides say the visit was coincidental to that. The IAEA had been suggested to be pushing more visits to alleged sites as well, though no agreements appear to have happened on that at all.
That’s not surprising. The IAEA keeps pushing the access requests at the behest of the US, based on Israel’s allegations. Iran has refused further visits since the IAEA didn’t find anything the last time, and while that’s bound to keep coming up neither Iran nor Grossi seems to want to let it harm the relationship.
The IAEA inspections of Iran are more strict than any place else in the world, and Iran is keen to show cooperation because of the P5+1 nuclear deal.The US keeps claiming violations, though since they are no longer part of the deal their options seem limited.
Iran Agrees to Grant IAEA Inspectors Access to Two Suspected Former Atomic Sites
In a joint statement on Wednesday, Rafael Grossi and Atomic Energy Organization of Iran chief Ali Akbar Salehi announced that “after intensive bilateral consultations, Iran and the IAEA reached an agreement on the resolution of the safeguards implementation issues specified by the IAEA, in good faith. In this regard, Iran is voluntarily providing the IAEA with access to two locations specified by the IAEA and facilitating the IAEA verification activities to resolve thes issues.”
To the dismay of US & Israel, the result of the inspection of two sites: Nothing Found…!