Iran’s Foreign Ministry: We are Ready to Cooperate with the Agency to Close the File
In response to statements indicating pessimism in Europe, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Thursday, September 15th, rejected the notion of diminishing hopes for reviving the JCPOA and claimed there is “no serious obstacle” such as past nuclear issues in the process of reviving the nuclear agreement.
Nasser Kanaani, the spokesperson, while expressing Iran’s “willingness” for “constructive” cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency regarding disputed matters, accused this international body of “political file-making.”
He said Iran is prepared to “examine the issues that the Agency raises in constructive cooperation with the Agency so that the file is closed and guarantees are created that these issues will not reappear as an obstacle in the implementation process of the agreement.”
These remarks come after Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, announced that negotiations to revive the nuclear agreement JCPOA and the mutual return of Iran and the United States to the agreement are in a state of “deadlock.”
Mr. Borrell said on Wednesday: “I am concerned that given the political conditions in the United States and many uncertainties, we now remain in a kind of deadlock.”
This senior European official’s reference is to the U.S. congressional midterm elections, which will be held in two more months, and reports have been published indicating that as these elections approach, the Joe Biden administration will prefer to refrain from action on the JCPOA for now.
Wednesday night, 56 countries, including more than twenty members of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors, behind closed doors, supported a statement from world powers—the three European countries of Britain, Germany and France and the United States—and called on Iran to “without wasting time accept the proposal of the Agency Director General for engagement to clarify and resolve remaining nuclear issues.”
Hours before this statement was read in the Board of Governors meeting, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s representative to international organizations in Vienna, told Radio Farda: “The Iranians need assurances that if they cooperate properly with the Director General, this file will be closed.”
He described the only way to close Iran’s file as “engagement with the Director General” and added that “the Agency Director General should also stop asking these silly questions that have nothing to do with the proliferation issue.”
His remarks come at a time when senior officials of the Islamic Republic have repeatedly accused Rafael Grossi of “politicization” and with each critical Agency report, point the finger of accusation at the Director General.
Source: Radio Farda
