Iran's deputy FM says IAEA to visit after halted cooperation
Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency will discuss a “new modality” for their future cooperation.
NEW YORK — Iran has approved a visit by a technical team from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in the coming weeks, but they will not inspect the enrichment sites that were targeted in US strikes, the top Iranian nuclear negotiator said Wednesday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi's briefing with reporters at the Iranian Mission in New York came just over a month after the United States and Israel carried out strikes targeting Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.
“We have agreed actually to accept a delegation of the [IAEA] technical delegation to pay a visit to Iran very soon — in two to three weeks,” Gharibabadi said. “This is goodwill that Iran is going to show … irrespective of all the pressures that we are facing at the domestic level.”
Following a vote in parliament, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in early July ordered the suspension of cooperation with the Vienna-based IAEA. Gharibabadi said the IAEA team and Iranian officials will discuss a “new modality” for their future cooperation.
