The IAEA has highlighted “complicated” ties between Iran while nuclear talks continue Nuclear Energy News

Tehran, Iran – It looks like the negotiations for the recovery of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal will be extended, a global nuclear surveillance report has highlighted its complicated control relationship with Iran.

In a report released on Monday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that Iran has not properly explained the uranium traces found in several undeclared sites.

“After many months, Iran has not provided the necessary explanation for the presence of particles of nuclear material in the three locations where the agency has provided additional access. [inspections]”The IAEA told member states.

The United Kingdom, France and Germany, the three European powers involved in Iran’s nuclear deal, tried to censor Iran on the IAEA governing board – backed by the US – earlier this year, but Iran rejected its plan after agreeing to cooperate internationally. experts.

Another meeting of the Commission will take place later this month, but a similar plan by the European powers could directly jeopardize the ongoing talks in Vienna to restore the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA), as the nuclear deal is formally known.

Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi wrote a letter to IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi after the agency’s final report was published.

According to Iranian envoy Kazem Gharibabadi to Vienna, the letter stated that Iran had recently agreed to continue recording its nuclear facilities for another month in order to continue technical negotiations with the agency.

“In terms of protections, Iran has so far made every effort to cooperate significantly with the agency and provide the necessary clarifications and responses,” Gharibabadi tweeted, adding that Iran will continue to cooperate.

In response, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s chief negotiator in Vienna, said the relationship between Iran and the IAEA was “complicated” at the moment, but “we have reasons that the current difficulties are temporary.”

6th round possible

That is, the fifth round of talks in Vienna may not be the last thing delegates expected for the U.S. to lift sanctions against Iran and return to fulfilling the JCPOA.

Iran’s top negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, said on Monday that he believes delegates will once again have to go to the capitals for consultation.

“We have addressed the main issues of the conflict. We are at a time when we are only dealing with obvious differences and a lot of necessary texts have been written, ”he said.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned the nuclear deal in May 2018, putting in constant waves of sanctions as part of his administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.

Efforts to restore the agreement continue as Iran moves toward the June 18 elections, in which Ebrahim Raisi, the head of conservative justice, is a pioneer.

Natanz sabotage

On Monday, an IAEA report provided Iran with the first details of the sabotage branches at Iran’s main nuclear facility in Natanz (one of several that have occurred in the past year).

According to the agency, Iran’s multi-level enriched uranium stockpile has increased by 273 kg (600 kilograms) in the three months ended May 22, more than half of what had risen by 525 kg in the previous quarter.

The extinguishing of Nathan’s power took place halfway through that period, on April 11th.

Iran began enriching uranium to a purity of more than 60 percent since it was the largest event, and the IAEA’s Grossi said it was “very worrying” last month. Iran’s 60 percent enriched uranium storage is now just 2.4 kg, according to the guard.

But the IAEA also said that Iran’s total warehouse is estimated to be about 3,241 kg, which is 16 times larger than the warehouse authorized under the JCPOA, which has also reduced its wealth to 3.67%.