IAEA Chief Urged to Adopt Impartial, Fair Approach to Iran

Iran called on the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency to maintain impartiality and fairness and avoid statements with political motives, a senior diplomat said. 
“His [Rafael Grossi’s] views are not helpful and constructive,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a regular press briefing on Monday, ISNA reported. 
He regretted that Iran’s constructive measures have not been met with similar approach by the agency and its director general.
“Mr. Grossi, especially in recent months, has adopted a non-professional, imprecise and unfair approach regarding Iran’s nuclear program,” he said. 
Grossi has recently said that Iran’s nuclear program is “galloping ahead” while the IAEA has very limited visibility on what is happening. 
He expressed concern that the weeks with no visibility would undermine any possible agreement on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which restricted Iran’s nuclear activity in return for sanctions relief.
“The agency needed to reconstruct a database, without which any agreement will rest on a very fragile basis, because if we don’t know what’s there, how can we determine how much material to export, how many centrifuges to leave unused?,” he told Spain’s El Pais newspaper in an interview published on Friday.
Negotiations have been underway in Vienna, Austria, to restore the JCPOA from which the US pulled out four years ago and reimposed sweeping sanctions that prompted Tehran to scale down its commitments. 

Not Technical 

Tehran has curbed its cooperation with the agency under the faltering deal as part of Iran’s countermeasures against US sanctions, as well as the IAEA Board of Directors’ recent resolution rebuking Iran for failure to give explanations about alleged nuclear activity in undeclared sites. 
Iran and the agency had agreed on a series of exchanges for clarification about claimed uranium particles found on old sites, but Grossi reported in July that Iran has not provided credible answers, paving the way for the adoption of the resolution by the IAEA board. 
Tehran reacted by removing essentially all IAEA monitoring equipment operating under the JCPOA and beyond its original safeguards obligations.
Grossi said at the time this could deal a “fatal blow” to chances of reviving the JCPOA.
“The bottom line is that for almost five weeks I have had very limited visibility, with a nuclear program that is galloping ahead and, therefore, if there is an agreement, it is going to be very difficult for me to reconstruct the puzzle of this whole period of forced blindness,” he said in the interview. 
“It is not impossible, but it is going to require a very complex task and perhaps some specific agreements,” he added.
Kanaani said Grossi’s statements are not technical and professional in Iran’s view.
“Iran is member of the agency and the Non-Proliferation Treaty and has over the years allowed IAEA inspectors to visit its sites repeatedly with good will and with the aim of addressing misunderstandings via constructive engagement,” he said. 
He added that the director general should adopt an interactive approach in return for Iran’s constructive cooperation with the agency. 
The diplomat also urged the IAEA chief to avoid disrupting Vienna negotiations to bring all sides back to their commitments. 
He also criticized western pressure and warnings about limited time so as to push Tehran to reach a decision on JCPOA swiftly. 
“Iran will act neither emotionally nor hastily and will not sacrifice the country and the nation’s interests for such a hurry,” he said. 
Iran has been flexible and submitted various constructive initiatives so far, and if the US acts in a similar manner in good faith and responds positively to Iran’s solutions, an agreement is within reach, Kanaani said.