The head of the UN’s atomic watchdog agency will head to Tehran next week to press Iranian authorities for access to sites where the country is thought to have stored or used undeclared nuclear material, the organization said Saturday, according to The Associated Press.
It will be the first visit to Iran of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi since he took office last December.
The focus of the visit will be on access to sites thought to be from the early 2000s, before Iran signed the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Iran maintains the IAEA inspectors have no legal basis to inspect the sites.
“My objective is that my meetings in Tehran will lead to concrete progress in addressing the outstanding questions that the agency has related to safeguards in Iran and, in particular, to resolve the issue of access,” Grossi said in a statement quoted by AP.
“I also hope to establish a fruitful and cooperative channel of direct dialogue with the Iranian government which will be valuable now and in the future,” he added.
The IAEA recently released a report in which it expressed "serious concern" that Iran has been blocking inspections at two sites where past nuclear activity may have occurred.
The IAEA has for months been pressing Tehran for information about the kind of activities being carried out at an undeclared site where the uranium particles were found.
While the IAEA has not identified the site in question, it is believed to be the Turquzabad facility which was identified by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during his address before the UN General Assembly in 2018 as a "secret atomic warehouse."
Iran has gradually scaled back its compliance with the 2015 deal in response to US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement in May of 2018.
Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium is now almost eight times the limit fixed in the accord, according to a recently published IAEA assessment.
However, the level of enrichment is still far below what would be needed for a nuclear weapon.