The head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI), Mohammad Eslami, said that Iran is cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) within the framework of the safeguards agreement and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, speaking of a “partial solution” to the outstanding issues with the UN agency.
Ebrahim RezaeI, the spokesperson for the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Iranian parliament, quoted Eslami as saying that the Strategic Action Plan to Lift Sanctions, which was passed by the 11th Parliament, has “empowered the AEOI to advance with greater momentum.”
The IAEA Board of Governors, which consists of 35 countries, issued a resolution last week calling on Iran to strengthen cooperation with the agency and to reverse the ban it recently imposed on the entry of inspectors. Iran quickly responded by fixing additional centrifuges to enrich uranium at the Fordow site, and began installing others, according to the UN international agency.
Meanwhile, the White House said that Iran should not have any doubt about America’s position regarding the development of its nuclear program. American and Israeli officials also told the Axios news website that Washington issued a secret warning to Iran last month regarding its fears of Iranian research and development activities that might be used to produce nuclear weapons.
Iran has been enriching uranium to 60 percent, close to the 90 percent used in nuclear weapons, since the first months of US President Joe Biden’s administration.
Reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement was one of Biden’s most prominent foreign policy promises. However, the negotiations with Iran faltered several times and reached a dead end, after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war in February 2022, and Iran’s isolation following the security campaign to suppress popular protests in September of the same year.
On Wednesday, Axios reported that the United States and Israel have monitored suspicious nuclear activities in Iran in recent months. Officials fear that those may be part of an Iranian effort to exploit the US presidential election period to make progress towards nuclear weaponization.
US officials said that the Biden administration conveyed its nuclear concerns to the Iranians several weeks ago through third countries and direct channels. They added that the Iranians responded with explanations for these nuclear activities, stressing that there had been no change in policy, and that they were not working on a nuclear weapon.
