UN nuclear watchdog chief welcomes Iran-US peace deal, says technical work starts now
By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, June 18 (Reuters) - The United Nations nuclear watchdog on Thursday welcomed the interim peace deal signed by Washington and Iran, saying it would now be involved in technical discussions to implement the agreement.
"It is good that the memorandum is there. Now the technical work starts," Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters in Geneva.
"Now it is for us to sit down with our American and Iranian colleagues and start formulating concrete steps that will have to be taken."
The14-point agreementsigned on Wednesday evening extends a ceasefire announced in April by another 60 days, including in Lebanon, to allow the two sides to negotiate a final truce.
Both Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian have digitally signed the memorandum in English and Farsi, U.S. and Iran officials said, with Iran's foreign ministry saying the agreement was already in effect as of Wednesday.
The United States and Israel launchedthe waron Iran on February 28. It quickly became a regional conflict that has killed more than 7,000 people, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, driven up energy prices, renewed inflationary pressures and caused concerns about a food supply crisis in developing countries.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, Editing by Linda Pasquini, William Maclean)
