Iran finally authorized Wednesday August 26 the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to enter soon in two sites which the nuclear gendarme demanded access in a context of tensions related to the American attempt to reimpose the sanctions of ONU.
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" Iran is voluntarily providing the IAEA with access to the two sites specified by the Agency, " wrote the IAEA and the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (OIEA) in a rare joint statement. " The dates for the IAEA's access and verification activities have been agreed upon, " they added, without specifying a timetable. The announcement comes as the first visit to Iran by the new IAEA Director General, Argentina Rafael Mariano Grossi, who took over as head of the Agency in 2019, ended on Wednesday.
In June, the board of governors of the IAEA, an organization based in Vienna, Austria, adopted a resolution proposed by European states, asking Tehran to allow inspectors access to two sites in order to clarify whether nuclear activities unreported had taken place there in the early 2000s. Iran has so far refused to respond favorably to IAEA requests, arguing that they were based on Israeli allegations.
The nuclear deal in danger
Mr. Grossi had secured a personal visit to Tehran amid mounting tensions between the United States and its European allies over Washington's attempt to maintain an arms embargo on Iran and reimpose sanctions of ONU. The UK, France and Germany have rejected the move, saying it thwarts their efforts to save the 2015 nuclear deal, from which Donald Trump withdrew his country in 2018.
Washington maintains that it has the right to force the reimposition of sanctions through the deal's “ snapback ” mechanism , an unprecedented procedure that the United States intends to make legally controversial use of. The joint committee on the agreement between Iran, the Europeans, China and Russia is meeting in Vienna on Tuesday.
