Documents on Outstanding Issues Provided to IAEA as Scheduled

Iran has given the International Atomic Energy Agency documents related to outstanding safeguards issues as per an early March agreement, said Iran’s top nuclear authority. 
“We sent documents on March 20 and they are reviewing them and the agency’s representatives will probably travel to Iran for further talks before the presenting a conclusion,” head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Mohammad Eslami said in a press briefing on Wednesday, IRNA reported. 
The global nuclear watchdog has been investigating into nuclear material that it suspects Iran failed to declare.
The agency claims to have found particles of processed uranium at three apparently old sites that Iran never declared and has repeatedly contended that Tehran has not provided satisfactory answers.
Eslami said the questions are no more than claims and are part of Israel’s diverse plots against the Islamic Republic. 
“The Zionist regime is faking evidence and carrying out sabotage terror operations, it is a course of action that is neither condemned, nor suppressed and is welcomed instead,” he said. 
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi traveled to Tehran in early March to discuss and address the questions.
Based on a deal reached during the visit, the AEOI agreed to provide the agency with written explanations, including related supporting documents, about the three locations no later than March 20, 2022. 
The IAEA would then review the received information within two weeks and submit any further questions to the AEOI.
Within one week, the IAEA and the AEOI would hold separate meetings for each of the three locations in Tehran to address those questions. 
Finally, the director general would aim to report his conclusion by the June 2022 Board of Governors’ meeting which begins on June 6. 
Eslami hoped that the agency representatives would perform their task in a professional and logical manner and independent of any influence. 
“The case of the three sites must be closed by the end of [June 20],” he said.
He also pointed out that a fourth case about which they had raised questions has already been cleared. 
In early March, the agency announced that it had removed from its list a fourth open issue regarding the alleged presence in the past of a uranium metal disc at another undeclared site.
“This issue could be considered as no longer outstanding at this stage,” the IAEA has said in a report. 

Securing JCPOA Revival 

The resolution of the safeguards issues could help secure an agreement on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which has been on the verge of collapse since the United States pulled out and Iran rolled back on its commitments in response to the reimposition of tough sanctions. 
As part of negotiations in the Austrian capital Vienna to restore the deal, which have been underway for a year, Iran demanded the closure of the IAEA investigation into the alleged uranium traces. 
The issue appeared to a sticking point which is apparently being settled thanks to the agreement in March.
Eslami said at the time that the questions are set to be resolved before the JCPOA’s “Reimplementation Day”, like the cases which were closed before the deal was signed back in 2015.
Reimplementation Day is a postulated date by which the JCPOA would be back in place, around one to three months after a basic agreement is reached in Vienna. 
Nevertheless, the talks have been stalled for a month now over other minor differences, with both Tehran and Washington blaming each other for failing to make the required political decisions. 
The current stumbling block is thought to be Iran’s demand for the terror delisting of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps which the US has so far refused to give in to.