IAEA chief Grossi hopes to hold talks with Iranian president by November

IAEA chief Grossi hopes to hold talks with Iranian president by November

By Francois Murphy

U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi hopes to hold talks with new Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian by November on improving Iran's cooperation with his agency, he said on Monday.

Several long-standing issues are dogging relations between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency, including Tehran's barring of uranium-enrichment experts on the inspection team and its failure for years to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites.

"He (Pezeshkian) agreed to meet with me at an appropriate juncture," Grossi said in a statement to a quarterly meeting of his agency's 35-nation Board of Governors, referring to an exchange after Pezeshkian's election in July.

"I encourage Iran to facilitate such a meeting in the not-too-distant future so that we can establish a constructive dialogue that leads swiftly to real results," he said.

With nuclear diplomacy largely stalled between the Iranian presidential election and the U.S. one on Nov. 5, Grossi said he wanted to make real progress soon.

Asked at a news conference if his reference to the "not-too-distant future" meant before or after the U.S. election, Grossi said: "No, hopefully before that."

IAEA board resolutions ordering Iran to cooperate urgently with the investigation into the uranium traces and calling on it to reverse its barring of inspectors have brought little change, and quarterly IAEA reports seen by Reuters on Aug. 29 showed no progress.

Iran responded to the latest resolution in June by announcing an expansion of its enrichment capacity, installing more centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium, at its Natanz and Fordow sites.

At its Fordow site dug into a mountain where it is enriching to up to 60% purity, close to the 90% of weapons grade, it installed two of the eight new cascades, or clusters, of advanced IR-6 centrifuges within days of informing the IAEA of its plan. Two weeks later, it had installed another two.

By the end of the quarter, the latest IAEA reports showed Iran had completed installation of all eight new cascades but still not brought them online. At its larger underground site at Natanz, which is enriching to up to 5% purity, it had brought 15 new cascades of other advanced models online.

"What we see is that there is some work, but nothing that indicates a rush to a fast implementation of a big increase in terms of enrichment production," Grossi said.

Iran has stepped up nuclear work since 2019, after then-U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned an agreement reached under his predecessor Barack Obama under which Iran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear activities in return for the lifting of international sanctions.

Western diplomats say there are plans for talks on fresh restrictions should Democrat Kamala Harris win the election.