Iran, IAEA in monitoring breakthrough

During the visit on 3 and 4 March, Grossi met President Ebrahim Raisi, as well as Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and the Vice-President of the Islamic Republic of Iran and President of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami. "These high-level meetings addressed the importance of taking steps in order to facilitate enhanced cooperation, to expedite as appropriate the resolution of outstanding safeguards issues," the AEOI and IAEA said in a joint statement on 4 March.

The AEOI and the IAEA agreed that interactions "will be carried out in a spirit of collaboration, and in full conformity with the competences of the IAEA and the rights and obligations of the Islamic Republic of Iran, based on the comprehensive safeguards agreement". Iran "expressed its readiness to continue its cooperation and provide further information and access to address the outstanding safeguards issues" at three undeclared locations and also said it will "on a voluntary basis" allow the IAEA to implement "further appropriate verification and monitoring activities", the modalities of which will be agreed "soon".

Grossi described these measures as a "tourniquet on the bleeding of information and lack of continuity of knowledge" in Iran, enabling the agency to begin "reconstructing these baselines of information".

Addressing the IAEA's Board of Governors today, Grossi said the high-level meetings "addressed the importance of taking steps to facilitate enhanced cooperation, to expedite as appropriate the resolution of outstanding safeguards issues."

"As you are aware, the Agency has not been able to perform JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] verification and monitoring activities in relation to the production and inventory of centrifuges, rotors and bellows, heavy water and uranium ore concentrate (UOC) for two years, including nearly nine months when the surveillance and monitoring equipment were not installed," he said in his introductory statement to the Board.

"Following my discussions with Vice-President Eslami in Tehran on Saturday, I note Iran's agreement to allow the Agency to proceed with further monitoring and verification measures indispensable to the Agency fulfilling its mission.

"Achieving this will be very important because it would allow the Agency to begin to establish a new baseline necessary in the event of a resumption of Iran’s implementation of its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA."

The IAEA is responsible for verifying and monitoring the implementation by Iran of its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA, which was agreed in 2015 between Iran and the so-called P5+1 - the USA, the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany. Under its terms, Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activities including uranium enrichment over a 15-year period and to allow in international inspectors in return for the lifting of economic sanctions. The USA withdrew from the deal in May 2018, and in January 2021, the IAEA reported that Iran had resumed enriching uranium to 20% purity at its Fordow enrichment plant.

In January of this year, Grossi said, Iran implemented a "significant change to the declared design information" for the Fordow plant without first informing the Agency, contrary to Iran's obligations under its Safeguards Agreement with the Agency, but has since said it will work with the Agency to increase the "frequency and intensity" of IAEA verification activities at Fordow.

Grossi also referred to the discovery at Fordow earlier this year of particles of uranium with enrichment levels "well beyond" those declared by Iran. Technical discussions are already underway to "clarify" this issue, he told the Board.

"I welcome Iran’s high-level assurances that it is willing to implement further appropriate verification and monitoring activities, and to cooperate with the Agency to resolve the outstanding safeguards issues, including those pertaining to the three undeclared locations in which the Agency found traces of uranium particles of anthropogenic origin," he said.

Realism

Grossi held press conferences after his visit to Iran and also ahead of his address to Board of Governors, during which he said that being able for the first time to hold talks with the President of Iran as well as having "substantive" discussions with the vice-president and foreign minister had led to "real substance" in all areas under discussion.

In response to questions about the discovery at Fordow of uranium particles reportedly enriched up to 84.5%, Grossi reiterated that the agency is working on clarification. "We don't judge intentions. We saw an event which is of course worthy of clarification," he said. "Sometimes in this type of facility there can be oscillations or peaks that can be accidental or can be limited in time …  the idea of this process is to sit down to look at the way in which the cascade in this case has been operated, to analyse it," he said.

He said the agency has not, in its continuous observation of the facility, seen "production or accumulation of uranium at that level" but "was not dismissing anything" and would "get to the bottom" of the issue before announcing its conclusions.

"I welcome Iran’s high-level assurances that it is willing to implement further appropriate verification and monitoring activities, and to cooperate with the Agency to resolve the outstanding safeguards issues, including those pertaining to the three undeclared locations in which the Agency found traces of uranium particles of anthropogenic origin. In the spirit of the joint statement, I look forward promptly to engaging in technical follow-up discussions with Iran, as we have agreed. There is important work ahead of us," he told the Board.