Today: 14 July 2025
13 September 2021
2 mins read

Iran says talks with IAEA chief constructive

Sunday’s agreement buys time for Iran before the IAEA board meeting, with Western powers arguing for Tehran to be censured over its lack of cooperation with international inspectors…reports Asian Lite News

Iran on Sunday backed down in a standoff with the UN atomic watchdog and agreed to allow continued monitoring of its nuclear sites.

The move followed talks in Tehran between Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Iran’s nuclear research chief Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

International inspectors can now install new memory cards in surveillance cameras at Iran’s nuclear sites and continue filming there, averting a potentially embarrassing rebuke for Iran at an IAEA board meeting this week.

Tehran holds all recordings made at its sites as negotiations over the US and Iran returning to the 2015 nuclear deal remain stalled in Vienna. Iran is also enriching uranium close to weapons-grade purity and its stockpile continues to grow.

“I am glad to say that today were able to have a very constructive result, which has to do with the continuity of the operation of the agency’s equipment here,” Grossi said after Sunday’s talks. The agreement was “indispensable for us to provide the necessary guarantee and information to the IAEA and to the world that everything is in order,” he said.

Sunday’s agreement buys time for Iran before the IAEA board meeting, with Western powers arguing for Tehran to be censured over its lack of cooperation with international inspectors. Eslami said Iran would take part in the meeting and its negotiations with the IAEA would continue there.

The IAEA told member states in its confidential quarterly report last week that its verification and monitoring activities had been “seriously undermined” since February by Iran’s refusal to let inspectors access their monitoring equipment.

The agency said monitoring and surveillance equipment could not be left for more than three months without being maintained. It was provided with access this month to four surveillance cameras installed at one site, but one of the cameras had been destroyed and a second had been severely damaged, it said.

In Israel, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged world powers not to “fall into the trap of Iranian deception that will lead to additional concessions” over the nuclear inspections deadlock.

“You must not give up on inspecting sites and the most important thing, the most important message, is that there must be a time limit,” Bennett said. Iran was “dragging on, we must set a clear-cut deadline that says: It stops here.

“The Iranian nuclear program is at the most advanced point ever. We must deal with this project.”

ALSO READ: India, US set to launch climate action dialogue

Previous Story

Indians may soon jump green card backlog queue with super fee

Next Story

Sheikh Mohammed takes bike tour of Expo site

Latest from -Top News

Beijing Sidelined in Mideast Clash

Yet when Iran came under a massive Israeli attack — supported by U.S. air strikes targeting its nuclear infrastructure — China’s reaction was mostly symbolic…reports Asian Lite News The recent conflict between

India, Saudi Expand Sectoral Ties

Both sides underscored their commitment to broadening the scope of bilateral relations…reports Asian Lite News Union Health and Chemicals & Fertilisers Minister J.P. Nadda’s visit to Dammam and Riyadh underscored the deepening

UN slams resumption of Houthi attacks

In the first such incidents for more than six months, the Yemeni group seized and then scuttled two Liberian-flagged bulk carriers operated by Greek shipping firms, leaving four seafarers presumed dead and

Aboulela awarded PEN Pinter prize

Born to an Egyptian mother and Sudanese father, Aboulela grew up in a Khartoum where British colonial echoes mingled with the call to prayer Sudanese-British novelist Leila Aboulela has been named winner

STORY OF SARA

Gaza’s young amputees struggle to heal amid war, medical collapse On the dusty floor of a makeshift tent in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, 10-year-old Sara al-Borsh clutches a pen
Go toTop

Don't Miss

Xi’s chances of securing third term under doubts

The G7 last week called on Xi on everything from

Raisi blames US, NATO for narco rise in Afghanistan

Raisi said Iran’s fight against drug trafficking was “affected by