IAEA And Iran Reach Preliminary Agreement On Nuclear Surveillance

Guarding the Iranian nuclear facility at Natanz. (WIkimedia Commons / Hamed Saber)

JAKARTA - The Iran Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is under the auspices of the United Nations, announced that they had reached a preliminary agreement related to Iran's nuclear issue, including the matter of surveillance and monitoring.

This announcement was made by IAEA Head Rafael Grossi at Vienna Airport, Austria on Sunday local time, after traveling and talks at the end of last week.

"This law exists. This law will be implemented, which means that the Additional Protocol, which I deeply regret, will be suspended", Grossi said at an airport press conference, as reported by Reuters.

Before he spoke, the IAEA and Iran issued a joint statement saying Tehran would continue to implement the Comprehensive Safeguard Agreement, its core obligation to the agency that allows monitoring of announced nuclear facilities.

The IAEA will also continue "the necessary verification and monitoring activities for up to three months", the statement said, without specifying what they were.

Grossi said the steps Iran will take this week will to some extent be mitigated by the terms of the new interim agreement.

“What we have agreed on is something that can be implemented, useful to bridge this gap that we are experiencing, to save the current situation. But of course, for a stable and sustainable situation there must be political negotiations that don't depend on me", said Grossi, hoping that this could be the savior of the 2015 joint nuclear agreement.

Iran has been known to have gradually violated the terms of its 2015 nuclear pact with world powers since the United States, under former President Donald Trump, withdrew in 2018 and reinstated sanctions. The pact aims to distance Iran from being able to manufacture nuclear weapons, which Tehran says it never wanted to build.

Launching the iaea.org site. There are three points agreed upon by the IAEA together with AEOI as follows:

1. That Iran continues to implement fully and without limitation its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA as before.

2. For temporary bilateral technical understanding, by the Act, in which the IAEA will continue the necessary verification and monitoring activities for up to 3 months (as per the technical attachment).

3. To maintain technical understanding in regular reviews to ensure it continues to achieve its objectives.