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IAEA Team to Visit Tehran in Coming Days

Head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, visits Isfahan last Tuesday. (dpa)
Head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, visits Isfahan last Tuesday. (dpa)
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IAEA Team to Visit Tehran in Coming Days

Head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, visits Isfahan last Tuesday. (dpa)
Head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, visits Isfahan last Tuesday. (dpa)

Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will visit Tehran in the coming days to finalize a draft text on the implementation of an agreement that will address all outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear program, Iranian news outlets said on Sunday.

The official IRNA news agency said Iran and the Agency are working to finalize a draft text for bilateral cooperation, before head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, presents his quarterly report on Iran's nuclear activities at the quarterly meeting of the Agency's 35-nation, Board of Governors (BoG), which begins on June 3.

At a meeting last February, major powers demanded that Grossi provide an early report on Iranian activities to discuss possible action against Tehran.

Grossi flew to Iran last week, 14 months after the two sides had reached an agreement over unresolved issues, particularly an investigation into unexplained uranium traces found at two out of three Iranian sites the IAEA team inspected after months of stonewalling.

Despite the agreement, the IAEA still faces a range of difficulties in Iran, including the fact Tehran only implemented a small fraction of what Grossi thought it committed to in a “Joint Statement” on future cooperation they made in March 2023.

According to IRNA, the IAEA team will discuss in Tehran three main issues. The first part concerns past issues that were closed in the 2015 nuclear deal in the form of the PMD (Possible Military Dimensions of Iran’s Nuclear Program) file. In this part, the two sides will discuss the unexplained uranium traces the IAEA found at two Iranian sites.

The second part concerns current conditions at the framework of compliance found in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its annexes.

And the third part concerns the person of the Director General of the IAEA, who must act as a facilitator and mediator to remove obstacles and resolve issues, which are mainly political, in a constructive and successful manner within the framework of the Agency’s professional responsibility, said IRNA.

The three issues were raised last Tuesday by Iran's nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami in Isfahan during a press conference with Grossi, who stressed “we do not seek to have a new document” after agreeing with his Iranian counterpart to activate a March 2023 joint statement as a path forward for cooperation between the IAEA and Iran.

Grossi later said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that at his meeting with Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, he proposed “concrete practical measures” with the “aim of restoring process of confidence building and increasing transparency.”

For his part, Abdollahian emphasized that the IAEA must take unbiased and professional positions.

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Türkiye Presses PKK to Disarm ‘Immediately’

An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
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Türkiye Presses PKK to Disarm ‘Immediately’

An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)

Türkiye on Thursday insisted the PKK and all groups allied with it must disarm and disband "immediately", a week after a historic call by the Kurdish militant group's jailed founder.

"The PKK and all groups affiliated with it must end all terrorist activities, dissolve and immediately and unconditionally lay down their weapons," a Turkish defense ministry source said.

The remarks made clear the demand referred to all manifestations of Abdullah Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has led a four-decade insurgency against the Turkish state, costing tens of thousands of lives.

Although the insurgency targeted Türkiye, the PKK's leadership is based in the mountains of northern Iraq and its fighters are also part of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a key force in northeastern Syria.

Last week, Ocalan made a historic call urging the PKK to dissolve and his fighters to disarm, with the group on Saturday accepting his call and declaring a ceasefire.

The same day, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that if the promises were not kept, Turkish forces would continue their anti-PKK operations.

"If the promises given are not kept and an attempt is made to delay... or deceive... we will continue our ongoing operations... until we eliminate the last terrorist," he said.

- Resonance in Syria, Iraq -

Since 2016, Türkiye has carried out three major military operations in northern Syria targeting PKK militants, which it sees as a strategic threat along its southern border.

Ankara has made clear it wants to see all PKK fighters disarmed wherever they are -- notably those in the US-backed SDF, which it sees as part of the PKK.

The SDF -- the bulk of which is made up of the Kurdish YPG -- spearheaded the fight that ousted ISIS extremists from Syria in 2019, and is seen by much of the West as crucial to preventing an extremist resurgence.

Last week, SDF leader Mazloum Abdi welcomed Ocalan's call for the PKK to lay down its weapons but said it "does not concern our forces" in northeastern Syria.

But Türkiye disagrees.

Since the toppling of Syria's Bashar al-Assad in December, Ankara has threatened military action unless YPG militants are expelled, deeming them to be a regional security problem.

"Our fundamental approach is that all terrorist organizations should disarm and be dissolved in Iraq and Syria, whether they are called the PKK, the YPG or the SDF," Omer Celik, spokesman for Erdogan's ruling AKP, said on Monday.

Ocalan's call also affects Iraq, with the PKK leadership holed up in the mountainous north where Turkish forces have staged multiple air strikes in recent years.

Turkish forces have also established numerous bases there, souring Ankara's relationship with Baghdad.

"We don't want either the PKK or the Turkish army on our land... Iraq wants everyone to withdraw," Iraq's national security adviser Qassem al-Araji told AFP.

"Turkish forces are (in Iraq) because of the PKK's presence," he said, while pointing out that Türkiye had "said more than once that it has no territorial ambitions in Iraq".