The Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency has once again criticized the Iranian regime’s further restriction of IAEA inspectors’ access to its nuclear activities, saying that the nuclear deal known as the JCPOA has practically been abandoned and Iran’s nuclear capabilities are no longer the same as they were ten years ago.
On March 30, Rafael Grossi told PBS that despite a recent report by the agency indicating a reduction in Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the overall trend is an increase in nuclear materials with very high enrichment levels.
In February, Reuters reported that the IAEA had informed its members that Iran’s storage of 60% enriched uranium continues to grow, but its pace has slowed in recent months.
Rafael Grossi reiterated his criticism of the agency’s limited access to Iran’s nuclear activities in his new interview with the PBS, emphasizing the complexity of the Iranian issue.
He said that the agency has inspections in Iran, but not at the levels and depths necessary, which is the crux of the problem.
The Director-General of the IAEA continued by stating that the JCPOA has essentially been abandoned and is just an empty shell, adding that the 2015 agreement was based on certain numbers and specific types of technologies, capacities, and capabilities, but that was ten years ago. Iran now has centrifuges that are much faster, more efficient, and more active, he warned.
He added that while parties talk about returning to the JCPOA, the reality is that in 2024, Iran is very different from 2015.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was signed in 2015 between Iran and six world powers.
Less than three years later, in May 2018, Donald Trump, the then-President of the United States, announced the US withdrawal from the agreement, after which Iran gradually abandoned its commitments under the JCPOA.
Iran’s move last year to not renew the visas of some agency inspectors, whom Mr. Grossi had called the “most experienced” inspectors, was seen as part of the rift between Tehran and Western countries.
Rafael Grossi told the BBC that the agency does not want to repeat the sad experience of Iraq. Grossi doesn’t think it’s in anyone’s interest. Therefore, shutting down inspections and expelling inspectors is never a good idea.
The restriction of inspections and the discovery of traces of enriched uranium in undisclosed locations have been among the disputes between the agency and the Iranian regime.
However, Rafael Grossi announced last February his decision to travel to Tehran again and pursue previous negotiations.
Immediately after that, Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said that this trip would take place in May, referring to the “congestion of the schedule in February.”
