The head of the UN nuclear weapons inspectorate was forced to qualify some of the claims he made about commitments he had extracted from Iran at the weekend about increasing access to UN inspectors.
At his first press conference on his return from Tehran on Saturday, Rafael Grossi said “yes” when asked if Iran had pledged to restore all the cameras and other surveillance equipment that it had removed from its nuclear-related sites. But at Monday’s press conference he qualified this, saying it required further discussion.
He said there was no agreement at this point on Iran handing over older footage and data taken by cameras and other equipment at the nuclear-related sites, or on future provision of that footage and data. “There are certain things we need to clarify,” he said.
Grossi’s visit to Tehran came ahead of a meeting of the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency this week to discuss a possible further censure of Iran for failure to cooperate with inspectors. If the IAEA board passes a highly critical resolution, Iran might again respond by increasing levels of uranium enrichment and stockpiles that are already far in excess of the limits set in the nuclear deal of 2015.
It could also destroy some of the camera footage it has been storing at nuclear sites but not handing to the UN inspectors, a move that would further damage the IAEA’s continuity of knowledge about the nuclear programme.
Grossi, a highly experienced Argentinian diplomat, has extracted Iranian promises before to restore the inspectors’ previous level of access that European powers and the US feel were not delivered, so in a context of minimal trust the west will want to examine how precise and bankable are the latest set of voluntary commitments that Iran offered Grossi in Tehran.
A concern is that Tehran is making vague promises to carry it over the hurdle of the IAEA board meeting. On the other hand, the US, preoccupied with Ukraine, appears not to be in a mood to censure Iran over its nuclear programme or to try to restore the stalled nuclear deal.
At his press conference, Grossi dismissed public statements by Iranian officials that they would not give him access to key Iranian nuclear scientists, implying that behind the scenes they are sending him different messages.
