BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 4. Two different demands of Iran and the IAEA regarding the Iranian nuclear program create conditions for certain misunderstandings, Iranian international affairs expert Kayhan Barzegar said, Trend reports.
Barzegar added that the major issue for the Iranian side is to ensure the fulfillment of obligations stipulated by Western countries within the framework of the Comprehensive Joint Action Plan.
The Iranian expert stated that the main issue for the International Atomic Energy Agency is to increase additional inspections and monitoring activities to make Iran's nuclear program transparent.
Barzigar emphasized that the continuation of Iran-IAEA-5+1 nuclear diplomacy is possible only if the parties can identify common nuances in terms of the possibility of reaching an agreement in these areas. Thus, to reach a possible nuclear agreement in this way, it is necessary to create a kind of balance between the two issues mentioned above.
On March 29, 2024, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, stated that since Iran's nuclear program is advanced and complex, ongoing IAEA inspections are not sufficient to confirm that the program is peaceful. Grossi also noted that the lack of diplomacy between the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) participants is the main reason for the disagreements between the IAEA and Iran.
To note, the Comprehensive Plan of Joint Action on Iran's nuclear program was implemented between Iran and the P5+1 group (the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany) in January 2016. The US announced in May 2018 that it was withdrawing from the plan and imposed sanctions on Iran in November of the same year. Iran has announced that there will be no restrictions on the Iran nuclear deal in 2020.
In late 2020, the Iranian parliament adopted a strategic plan to counter the sanctions, citing the non-fulfillment of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between Iran and six countries and the imposition of sanctions on Iran.
According to the decision of the Iranian parliament, as of February 23, Iran had stopped the implementation of additional measures and an additional protocol included in the nuclear deal. As a consequence, the monitoring mechanism of the IAEA was reduced by 20–30 percent.
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