Grossi’s visit has been in line with close interactions and cooperation between Iran and the IAEA.
In a tweet on Saturday, Grossi said, “I will travel to Tehran on Monday for meetings with Iranian authorities to address outstanding questions related to safeguards in Iran. I hope to establish a fruitful and cooperative channel of direct dialogue. It is necessary.”
He issued a report last month in which he admitted that Iran has cooperated with the Agency to carry out without prior notice inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities, while accusing Iran of having some undeclared nuclear sites.
The IAEA chief called for inspections into sites in which he claimed Iran had carried out small-scale researches on nuclear materials in early 2000.
Iran refuted the claims saying they were based on false data provided by hostile countries.
Addressing a meeting of IAEA Board of Governors two months ago, Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, said that the IAEA has to provide strong documents and reasons for inspection of the mentioned sites.
The Iranian ambassador noted that any data which is claimed to be collected through secret or security activities should have no place in verification mechanism of the agency and creates no commitment for Iran.
Gharibabadi has reiterated that Grossi’s visit to Tehran has nothing to do with the snapback – US attempt to re-impose international sanctions on Iran.
In an IAEA Board of Governors meeting on June 20, France, Germany and Britain proposed a resolution, under the pressure of the US, which calling on Iran to stop preventing access to two nuclear sites so that the IAEA inspectors could easily visit them.
The resolution was passed despite serious opposition by China and Russia.
Experts say that issuing the resolution, amid tough US pressures, was an unnecessary move and Gharibabadi said that the IAEA resolution is not legally binding.
He said that it is a US-Israeli trap and should not just be regarded as a move by three European countries.
However, the three European countries noted that the resolution is aimed to make Iran cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog and perusing the case at the UN Security Council is not on the agenda.
The visit to Tehran by IAEA secretary-general is taking place while the US has failed in adopting its maximum pressure on Iran over the past four years and is now driven into isolation.
Iran’s arms embargo is expected to be lifted on October 18 under the terms of a 2015 Iran nuclear deal and UNSC Resolution 2231. The United States has begun a campaign to extend the embargo.
Washington proposed a draft resolution to the UN Security Council two weeks ago which called for extension of Iran arms embargo. But on the voting day, except for the United States that had proposed the resolution, it was only Dominican that voted for it. China and Russia voted against it and the rest 11 member states abstained.
Following the unprecedented defeat, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo proposed another draft resolution to the UN Security Council on Thursday which called for re-imposition of all the international sanctions on Tehran that were lifted following the signing of a 2015 Iran nuclear deal – JCPOA.
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