Iran held constructive talks with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and will fulfill its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal, but will not accept any additional demands beyond those pledges, the Islamic Republic said during a visit of IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi in Tehran.
Grossi - who is on a visit to Iran to address months-long standoff in which Iran wasn't allowing IAEA inspectors to two sites suspected of having hosted nuclear activity in the past - said that he met on Tuesday with Iran's Vice-President and Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi.
"We are working on reaching an agreement on IAEA's safeguards verification activities in Iran," Grossi tweeted today.
Iran, for its part, said that the talks on Tuesday were "very constructive."
"I had very constructive talks with Grossi and it was decided that the IAEA move forward with its work professionally and independently, and Iran, too, act within the framework of its obligations," Iran's ISNA news agency quoted Salehi as saying.
Salehi, however, added that "we accept no illegal demand beyond nuclear commitments and we act based on our interests," according to ISNA.
"A new chapter has opened between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency and with Grossi's visit to Iran, our cooperation will further expand. I hope the outcome of this visit will please both sides, so much so that the two sides will fulfill their responsibilities," Iran's top nuclear official said, as carried by ISNA.
Last week, Iran's foreign minister Javad Zarif warned that U.S. efforts to have the UN sanctions on Iran re-imposed would have "dangerous consequences."
The U.S. withdrew in 2018 from the so-called Iran nuclear deal from 2015, imposing sanctions on Iran's banking, shipping, and oil industry. Iran's oil exports have significantly shrunk over the past two years, despite the use of every possible back-channel for exports.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More