WASHINGTON — The head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog warned Wednesday that the agency is not yet satisfied with Iran’s cooperation with international inspectors, just as European leaders appeared poised to reimpose sanctions on Tehran after a series of last-minute meetings failed to reach a diplomatic resolution on its nuclear program.
Despite Iran allowing inspectors back in for the first time since the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June, regaining access to crucial nuclear facilities is still “a work in progress,” Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told The Associated Press.
“I can say that it is important that the inspectors are back,” Grossi said in an interview. “At the same time, we still need to clarify a number of things, and we still need to address all the issues that are important in terms of the inspections that we have to carry out in Iran.”
Grossi, who has been receiving special police protection following a threat he said was “from the direction” of Iran, spoke with AP after meeting with high-level officials in Washington this week, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also spoke Wednesday with his counterparts from Germany, France and the United Kingdom.
Rubio and Grossi discussed global nuclear safety and “IAEA efforts to conduct monitoring and verification activities, including in Iran,” the State Department said in a brief readout of the meeting.
Leaders from the three European countries — known as the E3 — have spent the past several weeks meeting with Iranian officials, seeking a solution ahead of a deadline this week on a threat to reimpose U.N. sanctions. They have warned that they would invoke the so-called “snapback mechanism” of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal over what the countries have deemed Iran’s lack of compliance.
Inspectors are back in Iran, but not with full access
The Europeans’ concern over the Iranian nuclear program, which had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels before its atomic sites were bombed in the war, had only grown since Tehran cut off all cooperation with the IAEA following the conflict.
The U.S. and the E3 agreed to set an Aug. 31 deadline for invoking the snapback mechanism if Iran fails to meet several conditions, including resuming negotiations with the U.S. over its nuclear program, allowing U.N. inspectors access to its nuclear sites and accounting for over 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium.
Grossi said it was a breakthrough that IAEA inspectors have been allowed to return to Iran for the first time since Israel and the U.S. attacked Iranian nuclear sites, including with bunker-buster bombs.
“This is important given that the attacks began in the aftermath” of the Israeli and U.S. strikes, he told AP before a briefing Wednesday with reporters. “There were many voices in Iran advocating the end of any cooperation with the agency, and there were voices in the world arguing that perhaps the IAEA would never go back and that we would lose this indispensable work that we carry out on behalf of the international community.”
So far, Grossi said IAEA inspectors have returned to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant but not yet the other sites, including those targeted by the U.S. strikes. He said he had no immediate plans to return to Iran — he last visited the country early this year — but remains in contact with Iranian officials to go over the logistics of IAEA access to all the sites.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday confirmed inspectors were at the facility to watch a fuel replacement, according to a report by the state-run IRNA news agency. But he reportedly cautioned that it didn’t represent a breakthrough on the IAEA visiting other sites.
Iran has long insisted its program is peaceful, though it is the only non-nuclear-armed nation enriching uranium at such a high level. The United States, the IAEA and others say Iran had a nuclear weapons program up until 2003.
U.S. and European leaders hold call as sanctions deadline looms
Rubio had a phone call Wednesday with the foreign ministers of Germany, France and the U.K. after the three European countries held meetings with the Iranians over the past week.
“All reiterated their commitment to ensuring that Iran never develops or obtains a nuclear weapon,” Tommy Pigott, deputy State Department spokesperson, said in a statement.
The call follows talks Tuesday in Switzerland between representatives of the E3 and Iran that “ended without a final outcome,” said a diplomat with knowledge of the meeting. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the sensitive discussions.
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, said on X after the meeting that Tehran “remains committed to diplomacy″ and that it was “high time” for the European countries “to make the right choice, and give diplomacy time and space.”
Elite police unit guards Grossi
Grossi, who plans to run for United Nations secretary-general, is being protected by an Austrian police Cobra unit following a threat he said is from “the direction” of Iran.
“It’s very regrettable that some people threaten the lives of international civil servants, the head of an international organization,” Grossi told AP, adding that “we will continue our work.”
The elite unit under the Austrian Federal Ministry of Interior mainly handles counterterrorism operations, hostage rescues and responses to mass shootings. It also engages in personal protection and the protection of Austrian foreign representations abroad. In Austria, Cobra operatives are known for protecting the president and chancellor as well as the U.S. and Israeli ambassadors.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the additional security for Grossi, an Argentine diplomat who has raised the profile of the IAEA with his trips into Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion and the agency’s work on Iran.
Israel attacked Iran in June after the IAEA’s Board of Governors voted to censure Iran over its noncooperation with the agency, the first such censure in 20 years. Iran accused the IAEA, without providing evidence, of aiding Israel and, later, the United States in its airstrikes targeting its nuclear sites.
Top Iranian officials and Iranian media called for Grossi to be arrested and put on trial if he returned to the country.
