SAEDNEWS: IAEA Director Rafael Grossi confirmed that inspections in Iran will resume following attacks that temporarily halted oversight, with early constructive steps underway in coordination with Iran.
According to Saed News, Rafael Grossi told the BBC: “This is the result of the first round of contacts and discussions with Iran after the attacks. Naturally, those attacks caused a pause; you cannot conduct inspections when a country is under attack, so inspections were halted.”
He added: “Subsequently, Iran took measures, including passing a new law clarifying whether they would continue cooperating with us or not. Iran is a member of the NPT. They have commitments—voluntary but binding—to be inspected like any other country in the world. The goal was to resume the work that should naturally be done. However, the attacks were a turning point in many ways, and there were concerns about how to restart this process.”
The IAEA chief explained: “Therefore, multiple discussions took place, mostly technical, on how to proceed and where to go. I must say the process of agreeing on the details and practical steps is not fully completed yet. But a team is now there and will soon begin inspections.”
He emphasized that the locations to be inspected would not be made public: “As you know, inspections and their locations are not public matters because this is between the inspected country and the inspectors. But what I can say is that once we resume, inspections will be conducted according to the usual standards applied to any other country.”
Regarding Iran-Europe nuclear negotiations, he said: “This is a question that should be raised in Berlin, Paris, and London, as it is a political discussion between the European troika and Iran. As you mentioned, Iran’s cooperation with the agency is one of the topics under discussion, since the three European countries say—they hope I express this correctly—that they want Iran to cooperate seriously and effectively with the agency. As I said, initial steps are being taken. These steps are constructive; inspectors have returned, and this is significant.”
On meetings in Washington and the possibility of resuming Iran-U.S. negotiations, he stated: “I spoke with the U.S. special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who, as you recall, was indirectly communicating with Iran before the military action. I wanted to know his view on the ongoing process and share our perspective. Of course, this is a question that should mainly be asked of the U.S. government rather than the IAEA chief. But my view is that if Iran takes concrete steps toward transparency, the possibility of resuming negotiations at that level cannot be ruled out.”
