December 25 2020
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in an interview with Reuters that it’s unlikely the incoming Biden Administration will be able to re-enter the Iran nuclear deal without reaching a new agreement with Tehran.
Tehran was apoplectic.
“I cannot imagine that they are going simply to say, ‘We are back to square one’ because square one is no longer there,” Grossi said at IAEA headquarters in Vienna December 17.
“It is clear that there will have to be a protocol or an agreement or an understanding or some ancillary document which will stipulate clearly what we do,” he said.
“There is more [nuclear] material, … there is more activity, there are more centrifuges, and more are being announced. So, what happens with all this? This is the question for them at the political level to decide.”
In Tehran, the reaction was instant and horrified, since the Islamic Republic has said for months that both Iran and the United States can swiftly come back into compliance simply by rescinding what they have done since 2018, when President Trump re-imposed sanctions.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Iran had contacted Grossi, who told it his remarks had been misinterpreted. Khatibzadeh said Grossi was talking only about “technical issues between Iran and the IAEA” and did not mean that Iran needed to negotiate with the other parties.
But the IAEA has not issued any refutation of the Reuters story.
