INTERNATIONAL Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi emphasized the important role Russia could play in using its ties with Iran to persuade the Islamic Republic to cooperate with the nuclear watchdog.
In an interview with a Russian newspaper, Grossi said Iran’s nuclear program has expanded since it signed the deal in 2015, hence, he called the agreement a thing that only exists in paper and means nothing since nobody follows it.
He acknowledged that there have been attempts to revive it in recent years but failed for unknown reasons.
Grossi said the nuclear watchdog lost track of the Islamic Republic’s production of centrifuges, rotors and bellows, heavy water, and uranium.
The IAEA chief revealed recently that Iran is just weeks, and not months away from creating a nuclear weapon.
This past weekend France, Germany, and Britain condemned Tehran’s latest actions to further expand its uranium enrichment. The three European nations were among the original signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
The three countries, collectively known as the Troika or E3, were the same group that passed a resolution earlier this month, which condemned Iran’s lack of cooperation with nuclear inspectors from the UN agency, with the measure supported by the United States.
Tehran called the resolution “hasty” and “unwise”, adding that Iran is operating dozens of additional advanced centrifuges at the Natanz enrichment site and plans to install thousands more centrifuges.
Events escalated quickly from high hopes of cooperation down to a new wave of tensions since Grossi visited Iran to manage their differences in early May.
