Iran Hints at Extending Cooperation with IAEA

European External Action Service (EEAS) Deputy Secretary-General Enrique Mora and Iranian Deputy at Ministry of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi meeting in Vienna (Reuters)
European External Action Service (EEAS) Deputy Secretary-General Enrique Mora and Iranian Deputy at Ministry of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi meeting in Vienna (Reuters)
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Iran Hints at Extending Cooperation with IAEA

European External Action Service (EEAS) Deputy Secretary-General Enrique Mora and Iranian Deputy at Ministry of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi meeting in Vienna (Reuters)
European External Action Service (EEAS) Deputy Secretary-General Enrique Mora and Iranian Deputy at Ministry of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi meeting in Vienna (Reuters)

Iran may consider extending cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over inspections of its nuclear sites, according to top negotiator at Vienna talks.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Japanese NHK television that Tehran hopes enough progress will be made so that there will be no need for an extension.

But he said that if needed, Iran will consider an extension at a proper time.

Iran indicated that it intends to end its cooperation with the Agency on nuclear inspections if no progress is made in talks on lifting US sanctions and other issues by late May.

Last month, IAEA Director-General, Rafael Grossi, said that the agency may need to discuss the matter with Iran again if no agreement is reached between the signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal.

It is believed that Araghchi and Grossi discussed the issue when they met on Thursday at headquarters in Vienna.

Observers say Iran wants to prioritize diplomatic talks because stopping inspections would spark international condemnation.

US, Iranian and European officials said that Washington and Tehran still have a long way to go to revive the (JCPOA), despite a US official saying that reaching an agreement is possible within weeks if Iran takes a political decision to do so.

Araghchi also believes there is a long way for negotiators before reaching an agreement.

“When it will happen is unpredictable and a time-frame cannot be set. Iran is trying (for) it to happen as soon as possible, but we will not do anything in a rush,” Araghchi told state TV.

The fourth round of indirect talks between the US and Iran is currently taking place in Vienna on how to resume compliance with the deal, which former President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018.

A European diplomat said that the US had put forward a comprehensive proposal that includes lifting sanctions on key sectors such as oil, gas, and banking, and indicated some openness to easing sanctions related to terrorism and human rights.

The diplomat, who asked not to be named, added that Iran had not shown any willingness to curtail any expertise it may have gained from work on advanced centrifuges nor to destroy them.

The US official said Tehran must avoid asking Washington to do more than what is envisaged in the original agreement while itself seeking to do less.

“The pace would have to accelerate for us to get there in the coming weeks and no guarantee that that will be the case,” he said.



French Intelligence Chief: No Certainty on Whereabouts of Iran’s Uranium Stocks

An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)
An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)
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French Intelligence Chief: No Certainty on Whereabouts of Iran’s Uranium Stocks

An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)
An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)

France's intelligence chief said on Tuesday that all aspects of Iran's nuclear program have been pushed back several months after American and Israeli air strikes, but there is uncertainty over where its highly-enriched uranium stocks are.

"The Iranian nuclear program is the material, it is highly-enriched uranium, it is a capacity to convert this uranium from the gaseous phase to the solid phase. It is the manufacturing of the core and it is the delivery," Nicolas Lerner, who heads the DGSE intelligence service, told LCI television.

"Our assessment today is that each of these stages has been very seriously affected, very seriously damaged and that the nuclear program, as we knew it, has been extremely delayed, probably many months."

Lerner, who was speaking for the first time on national television, said a small part of Iran's highly-enriched uranium stockpile had been destroyed, but the rest remained in the hands of the authorities.

"Today we have indications (on where it is), but we cannot say with certainty as long as the IAEA does not restart its work. It's very important. We won't have the capacity to trace it (the stocks)," Lerner said.

Other intelligence assessments have also suggested that Iran retains a hidden stockpile of enriched uranium and the technical capacity to rebuild.

Lerner echoed those comments saying there was a possibility Iran could press ahead with a clandestine program with smaller enrichment capacities.

"That's why France is so attached to finding a diplomatic solution to this nuclear crisis," he said.