IAEA chief: Iran nuke deal must be revived in weeks, not months
"It is clear that we don’t have many months ahead of us. We have rather weeks."
By YONAH JEREMY BOB, REUTERSA general view of the Bushehr main nuclear reactor, Iran(photo credit: REUTERS/RAHEB HOMAVANDI)
Reviving the Iran nuclear deal must happen within the coming weeks, International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Rafael Grossi said Monday after Tehran resumed 20% uranium enrichment and its parliament threatened to reduce access for inspectors as of February 21.“It is clear that we don’t have many months ahead of us,” he said in an interview for the Reuters Next conference. “We have rather weeks.”Grossi’s statement seemed to contradict comments he made in December, when he said there could be no mere return to the old 2015 nuclear deal, and negotiations must focus on a new deal.While at the time, Grossi was not necessarily endorsing all of Israel’s and Sunni countries’ criticism of loopholes in the prior nuclear deal, his recognition that Iran’s progress in designing more advanced centrifuges required some new thinking gained him praise from Israel and an angry rebuke from Iran.One possibility of the change in tone could be alarm that his inspectors will be thrown out of the Islamic Republic on February 21 if there is not significant progress.Officials from US President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration have said they intend to rejoin the nuclear deal, but it is not their first priority, and they wish to do so as part of a process leading to an add-on deal to restrain some of Iran’s other destructive behaviors.Another possibility is that they do not mean there must be major progress by February 21, but at least initial progress that stops the expulsion of IAEA inspectors and slows or stops the enrichment of uranium to 20% levels, which is considered much closer to being weaponized than at lower 5% levels.
