Grossi Wants to Meet with Iran’s Pezeshkian ‘at Earliest Convenience’

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)
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Grossi Wants to Meet with Iran’s Pezeshkian ‘at Earliest Convenience’

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi announced he intends to visit Tehran through a letter he addressed to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iranian Mehr Agency reported that Grossi sent a congratulatory message to the Iranian president-elect, which stated: “I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to you on your election win as President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

“Cooperation between the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been at the focal attention of the international circles for many years. I am confident that, together, we will be able to make decisive progress on this crucial matter.”

“To that effect, I wish to express my readiness to travel to Iran to meet with you at the earliest convenience,” Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted Grossi as saying.

The meeting – should it take place - will be the first for Pezeshkian, who had pledged during his election campaign to be open to the West to resolve outstanding issues through dialogue.

Last week, American and Israeli officials told the Axios news site that Washington sent a secret warning to Tehran last month regarding its fears of Iranian research and development activities that might be used to produce nuclear weapons.

In May, Grossi expressed his dissatisfaction with the course of the talks he held over two days in Iran in an effort to resolve outstanding matters.

Since the death of the former Iranian president, Ibrahim Raisi, the IAEA chief refrained from raising the Iranian nuclear file, while European sources said that Tehran had asked to “freeze discussions” until the internal situation was arranged and a new president was elected.



Thousands of Supporters of Pakistan’s Imprisoned Ex-PM Khan Rally to Demand His Release

 Supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan take a part in a rally to mark the first anniversary of his arrest and demand his release, in Swabi District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (AP)
Supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan take a part in a rally to mark the first anniversary of his arrest and demand his release, in Swabi District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (AP)
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Thousands of Supporters of Pakistan’s Imprisoned Ex-PM Khan Rally to Demand His Release

 Supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan take a part in a rally to mark the first anniversary of his arrest and demand his release, in Swabi District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (AP)
Supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan take a part in a rally to mark the first anniversary of his arrest and demand his release, in Swabi District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (AP)

Thousands of supporters of Pakistan’s imprisoned former prime minister rallied Monday in the country’s volatile northwest to mark the first anniversary of his arrest and demand his immediate release, officials said.

The protest is part of Imram Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or PTI opposition party’s campaign aimed at pressuring the current government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to free him without any further delay.

The rally was held in Swabi, a city in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where Khan’s party rules.

More than 10,000 supporters of Khan were seen waving the party’s flags and chanting slogans in his favor in Swabi. Top party leaders in their speeches told the demonstrators that Khan would soon be among them, though they did not elaborate.

It was one of the biggest protests since 2022 when Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in the parliament.

Ali Amin Gundapur, the chief minister in the province, asked the demonstrators to get ready for a march on Islamabad in the coming weeks, as PTI plans to hold a big protest in the capital later this month or early next month. He said PTI would defy any ban if it was not allowed to hold the rally in the nation's capital.

Khan was arrested on August 5, 2023, after a court in Islamabad handed him a 3-year jail sentence in a graft case. Despite his multiple convictions, Khan remains a leading figure.

In recent months, all of his convictions have been either suspended or overthrown. However, the former premier will remain behind bars as he awaits a slew of cases pending against him, which his party says are fake and politically motivated.

Sharif’s government has denied those accusations, saying Khan has been given the chance of a fair trial.