TEHRAN - Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has said that he welcomes an agreement between the Agency and Iran which he hopes “will reinforce cooperation and enhance mutual trust”.

“We reached agreement on the resolution of the safeguards implementation issues raised by the Agency. The Agency subsequently conducted a complementary access, under the Additional Protocol, at one of the two locations specified by us. Our inspectors took environmental samples which will be analysed. A complementary access at the second specified location will take place later this month,” the IAEA’s official website quoted Grossi as saying in an introductory statement to the Board of Governors.

He also said, “My report on Verification and monitoring in the Islamic Republic of Iran in light of United Nations Security Council resolution 2231 covers our activities in the last few months in verifying and monitoring Iran’s implementation of its nuclear-related commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.”

“The Agency continues to verify the non-diversion of nuclear material declared by Iran under its Safeguards Agreement. Evaluations regarding the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities for Iran continue.”

Grossi said, “You have also received my report entitled NPT Safeguards Agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran, which describes the Agency’s efforts to clarify questions relating to the correctness and completeness of Iran’s declarations under its Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol.”

“Last month, I had discussions in Tehran with President Rouhani and other senior officials aimed at making concrete progress in addressing the Agency’s outstanding questions, and in particular at resolving the issue of access to two locations in Iran,” he added.

Grossi visited Tehran on August 24 and 25 and held talks with senior Iranian officials. On August 26, at the end of his visit, Iran and the IAEA issued a joint statement on agreements and the results of high-level talks between the two sides.

According to the statement, the IAEA and Iran “agreed to further reinforce their cooperation and enhance mutual trust” to facilitate the full implementation of Iran’s Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (CSA) and the Additional Protocol (AP) thereto, which is provisionally applied by Iran since January 16, 2016.

“After intensive bilateral consultations, Iran and the IAEA reached an agreement on the resolution of the safeguards implementation issues specified by the IAEA, in good faith. In this regard, Iran is voluntarily providing the IAEA with access to the two locations specified by the IAEA and facilitating the IAEA verification activities to resolve these issues,” the statement said.

In its quarterly report on September 4, the IAEA announced that Iran has granted the Agency’s inspectors access to one of the two sites it agreed the previous week for verification purposes.

The report added that the IAEA inspected the sites and took environmental samples there while the agency’s inspectors would visit the other site “later in September 2020 on a date already agreed with Iran, to take environmental samples.”

NA/PA