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Iran gives IAEA explanations on two sites where inspectors found traces of uranium

Nuclear Program Materials 26 July 2023 20:30 (UTC +04:00)
Elnur Baghishov
Elnur Baghishov
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 26. Tehran provided the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with explanations and documents on the two remaining facilities in respect of which the agency had suspicions of undeclared nuclear activities, Head of the country's Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Eslami said, Trend reports.

"We have provided the IAEA with detailed answers, facts and documents on the two remaining facilities. If they are not accepted, we will continue to clarify and provide additional evidence," Eslami said.

Earlier, Director General of the IAEA Rafael Grossi stated that his agency had not received explanations from Tehran about the traces of uranium found by agency inspectors in Iran in three places that cannot be considered nuclear facilities in any way.

Informed sources in Tehran later reported that as a result of a series of technical negotiations, the number of objects for which the international agency remains suspicious has been reduced to two.

The IAEA announced in a confidential quarterly report that it had decided to stop investigating traces of uranium allegedly found at one of the three facilities, at the Marivan landfill in the Abadeh district after receiving clarifications from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran at the end of May.

The IAEA's suspicions of Iran's undeclared nuclear activities serve as a serious obstacle in unblocking negotiations to restart the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program after the US withdrawal from it.

Adviser to the Iranian delegation at the JCPOA negotiations Mohammad Marandi said last month that Tehran would not sign an agreement on restarting the nuclear deal until it resolved all disputed issues with the IAEA.

The JCPOA was concluded by the "six" international mediators (the UK, Germany, China, Russia, the US, France) and Iran and provided for the lifting of sanctions from the latter in exchange for limiting Tehran's nuclear program in 2015.

Then US President Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA and reinstated unilateral anti-Iranian sanctions in May 2018. In response, Tehran began to gradually reduce its obligations to limit its nuclear program under the agreement. Current US President Joe Biden has declared his readiness to return to the nuclear deal under certain conditions.

Several rounds of indirect talks between Iran and the US on the conditions for the restoration of the JCPOA were held in Vienna with the mediation of the UK, Germany, China, France, Russia and the EU.

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