BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 3
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
Iran's agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is in the interests of both sides, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Agency Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi told Resalat newspaper, Trend reports.
The spokesman said that the Islamic Republic of Iran needs good relations with the IAEA, as the mentioned agreement allows Iran to advance its work with the organization.
"At the same time, Iran has fulfilled its obligations within the framework of its principles and prevented pressure on the agency," he said.
Kamalvandi stressed that Iran currently follows three vectors in its relations with the IAEA, which include issues related to the security of nuclear facilities, the Additional Protocol and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
According to the spokesman, the IAEA has submitted 17 reports on Iran so far. All reports state that Iran remains committed to its agreements.
"Iran and the IAEA have agreed that on the basis of the Additional Protocol, the organization's inspectors can inspect Iran's nuclear facilities. Of course, Iran is doing this voluntarily. Because there is an article in the Additional Protocol related to the voluntary implementation of a number of cases by the member country," he said.
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, recently visited Tehran for talks with Iranian officials. Both sides agreed on a number of issues on the basis of the talks.
In January 2016, JCPOA was launched between Iran and the P5+1 group (US, Russia, China, UK, France and Germany) in connection with Iran's nuclear program. In May 2018, the US announced its withdrawal from the deal and imposed sanctions on Iran in November of the same year.
To preserve the agreements reached as part of the JCPOA, the European signatories of the deal stated in January 2019 that a financial mechanism for maintaining trade with Iran called INSTEX was formed.
On May 8, 2019, Iran announced that it had ceased fulfilling its commitments regarding the sale of over 300 kilograms of uranium, as stated in the deal, basing its decision on the other signatories having not fulfilled their obligations. On July 7, Iran announced that it will not be fulfilling its commitments regarding the enrichment of uranium at 3.67 percent and the reconstruction of the Arak Heavy Water Reactor Facility as stated in the deal.
Iran announced that it will enrich uranium using next-generation centrifuges and will not mix it with the enriched uranium residues as part of the third step of reducing commitments in JCPOA on Sept.5.
On Nov. 5, 2019, Iran announced that it took the fourth step in connection with reducing its commitments to the nuclear agreement. So, uranium gas is being pumped to the centrifuges at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant.
On Jan.2020, Iran took the last fifth step in reducing the number of its commitments within JCPOA.