Iran Website Says Expansion Of IAEA Nuclear Monitoring A Lie

An Iranian website close to the national security council has said claims that the IAEA will install more monitoring equipment in Iran’s nuclear installations are lies.

Nour News made the statement in a tweet on Sunday, less than a day after the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi held talks in Tehran and reached agreement for closer cooperation and more monitoring.

Nour news said, “The most important result of IAEA director general’s trip to Tehran was achieving a joint template to speed up monitoring cooperation…News about [IAEA] providing access to individuals and to three [older nuclear] sites claimed by the agency, or installing new cameras is a lie.”

This followed Iran's Atomic Energy Organization spokesperson Behrouz Kamalvandi’s statement almost immediately after Grossi’s trip that Tehran had not agreed to give access to people.

"During the two days that Mr. Grossi was in Iran, the issue of access to individuals was never raised," Kamalvandi told state news agency IRNA, adding there also has been no deal regarding putting new cameras in Iran's nuclear facilities.

IAEA said Saturday that Iran has given sweeping assurances to the UN nuclear watchdog that it will finally assist a long-stalled investigation into uranium particles found at undeclared sites and even re-install removed monitoring equipment.

The IAEA and Iran issued a joint statement on Grossi's return from a trip to Tehran just two days before a quarterly meeting of the agency's 35-nation Board of Governors.

The statement went into little detail but the possibility of a marked improvement in relations between the two is likely to stave off a Western push for another resolution ordering Iran to cooperate, diplomats said. Iran has, however, made similar promises before that have yielded little or nothing.

"Iran expressed its readiness to ... provide further information and access to address the outstanding safeguards issues," the joint statement said. A confidential IAEA report to member states seen by Reuters said Grossi "looks forward to ... prompt and full implementation of the Joint Statement".

Iran is supposed to provide access to information, locations and people, Grossi told a news conference at Vienna airport soon after landing, suggesting a vast improvement after years of Iranian stonewalling.

But the Nour News tweet is another indication of backtracking by Iran once the IAEA board meeting ends without a damaging resolution for Tehran.

Grossi after his trip said that joint work will begin “very, very soon” to implement the agreements reached, but how soon remains to be seen. Any trip to Iran by IAEA officials to work out the details will certainly not take place overnight and reach a conclusion before the board meeting will be over later in the week.

There is a precedence of Iran inviting Grossi for talks before IAEA board meetings, without any concrete results. Grossi visited Tehran last March but the issue of uranium traces found in older sites was not resolved.

However, Grossi speaking in a joint press conference with Iran’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami on Saturday said talks were taking place in an "atmosphere of work, honesty..."