Tehran Will Accept Inspections Set Out in JCPOA If Deal Restored 

Iran will accept additional inspections of its nuclear activities by the International Atomic Energy Agency within the very frameworks it had previously agreed to under the 2015 nuclear deal, should the agreement be revived, the country’s top nuclear chief said on Wednesday. 
“If they [the United States] return to the JCPOA and implement what had been agreed and was a mutual commitment, we will adhere as well. Not one word more, not one word less,” Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told reporters on the sidelines of a Cabinet meeting, ISNA reported.
He used the abbreviation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the deal that placed curbs on Iran’s nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief, but has been unravelling since the US pulled out and reimposed tough sanctions, prompting Tehran to react by scaling down its commitments.
As part of its countermeasures, Iran has restricted IAEA inspections that went beyond its safeguards and were required by the JCPOA.
This included the removal of 27 surveillance cameras that “were covering important areas of both centrifuge production facilities and other things,” according to IAEA chief Rafael Grossi.
Iran says it will reverse all its measures once the other parties return to their commitments, but Grossi voiced concern about gaps of information. 
“We lost that continuity of knowledge,” he said in an interview with PBS.
“If and when the agreement is revived and we can reconnect the cameras, we have to sit down with our Iranian colleagues and see how we can fill in the gaps between that time and the present time,” he added. 
Talks have been underway for more than a year in the Austrian capital Vienna to restore the 2015 deal and are now hinging on a few outstanding issues. 

Maximum Access

Grossi also said the agency needs cooperation from Iran, as well as maximum levels of access and inspection to clarify questions about uranium traces allegedly found in undeclared sites in Iran.  
“The more limitations we have, the less credibility or the less assurances we can provide the international community about the status of the nuclear material in Iran,” he said. 
A key demand by Iran in JCPOA talks has been the closure of its related IAEA safeguards case.  
The western parties refused to entertain this demand, arguing that it is beyond the scope of the JCPOA and Vienna talks. 
The IAEA Board of Governors also passed a resolution in June that rebuked Iran for failure to give credible explanation about the uranium traces. 
Eslami reiterated that the evidence was fabricated by enemies, particularly Israel, who have been accusing Iran for decades. 
“Iran is party to the [nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] and safeguards and the agency cannot claim there is an activity in Iran where they have detected non-compliance through their inspections,” he said. 
All Iranian nuclear activities have been under the agency’s inspection and duly declared, according to the nuclear chief.
“We have no undeclared sites,” he said. 
To break the deadlock in JCPOA talks, the European Union put forward an initiative early this month which included solutions to address the safeguards issue. 
The proposal would have Iran address the IAEA’s concerns before the pact takes effect on the “Reimplementation Day”, which would be around one to three months after a basic agreement is reached in Vienna. 
The US and the other parties in the talks would, in return, urge the IAEA Board of Governors to close the investigation and nullify the June resolution. 
Iran submitted its answer to the EU draft last week where it gave some additional requests, but apparently accepted the solution for the safeguards issue. 
“What has been negotiated is that the claims be closed by the Reimplementation Day, that is, the exchanges be carried out and the IAEA Board of Governors conclude the case by then, so that this historical excuse that is all but undue allegations will be put aside once and for all,” Eslami said. 
US officials had earlier said that Washington was not going to put any pressure on the IAEA to close the outstanding issues, saying the case will be closed when Iran provides the technically credible answers that the agency has requested. 
The US has not yet officially responded to the EU proposal and Iran’s comments.