Tehran, Iran – As the nuclear negotiations to resume Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement may be extended, a report by the global nuclear regulatory agency highlights its complicated supervisory relationship with Iran.

In a report released on Monday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stated that Iran failed to fully explain the traces of uranium found in several previously undeclared locations.

“A few months later, Iran did not provide the necessary explanations for the presence of nuclear material particles in any of the three locations that the agency conducted supplementary visits. [inspections],” the International Atomic Energy Agency told member states.

Earlier this year, Britain, France, and Germany, the three European powers of the Iran nuclear deal, tried to condemn Iran on the IAEA board of directors — with the support of the United States — but abandoned their plans after Iran agreed to cooperate with the world. expert.

Another board meeting will be held later this month, but the implementation of similar plans by European powers may directly jeopardize Vienna’s ongoing negotiations to resume the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA), as the nuclear agreement has been officially announced.

After the latest agency report was published, the head of Iran’s nuclear issue, Ali Akbar Salish, wrote a letter to Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

According to Iran’s special envoy to Vienna, Kazem Gharibabadi, he pointed out in the letter that Iran recently agreed to record its nuclear facilities for another month in order to continue technical negotiations with the agency.

“In terms of safeguard measures, Iran has so far tried its best to cooperate with the agency in substance and provide necessary clarifications and responses,” Garibabadi wrote on Twitter, adding that Iran will continue to cooperate.

In response, Russia’s chief negotiator in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, stated that the relationship between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency is currently “complex”, but “we have reason to believe that the current difficulties are temporary.”

Possible round 6

At the same time, the fifth round of talks in Vienna aimed at lifting U.S. sanctions on Iran and making it fully comply with the JCPOA may not be the last round of talks that delegates hoped for.

Iran’s Supreme Negotiator and Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghci said on Monday that he believes the delegates may need to return to the capital for consultations.

“We have reached a consensus on the main issues in dispute. We are at a point where we are only dealing with obvious differences and have drafted most of the necessary text,” he said.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned the nuclear agreement in May 2018 as part of his government’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran and launched a wave of relentless sanctions.

With Iran’s upcoming elections on June 18, efforts to restore the agreement continue, with Ebrahim Raisi, the head of the conservative judiciary, leading.

Natanz Nuclear Enrichment Plant [File: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA]

Natanz destruction

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s report on Monday also learned in detail for the first time the consequences of the destruction of Iran’s main nuclear facility in Natanz — one of several nuclear facilities in the past year — which the country blamed on Israel.

The agency stated that in the three months ended May 22, Iran’s total stocks of enriched uranium of various grades were estimated to have increased by 273 kg (600 lbs), only slightly more than half of the 525 kg increase in the previous quarter.

The power outage in Natanz occurred halfway through that period, on April 11.

After the incident, Iran began to enrich uranium to a purity of more than 60%, the highest so far, prompting IAEA’s Grossi to call it “very worrying” last month. According to regulators, 60% of Iran’s enriched uranium stocks now weigh only 2.4 kg.

However, the IAEA also stated that Iran’s total stocks are now estimated to be about 3,241 kg, which is about 16 times higher than the stocks allowed by JCPOA, which also limits the concentration to 3.67%.