UN nuclear chief in Iran to ‘reach diplomatic solutions’

TEHRAN: International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi arrived in Iran on Wednesday for discussions on Tehran´s nuclear programme, a week after Donald Trump´s election as the new US president.

During his first term in the White House from 2017 to 2021, Trump was the architect of a policy called “maximum pressure” levying against Tehran biting sanctions that had been lifted through a landmark nuclear agreement in 2015.

Grossi, who is the director general of the UN agency, was greeted on Wednesday evening at the airport by Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran or AEOI.

Grossi is set to meet on Thursday in Tehran with AEOI chief Mohammad Eslami as well as Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who was chief negotiator in the nuclear talks between Tehran and the major powers that resulted in the 2015 deal formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA.

The deal, reached after 21 months of negotiations between Iran and world powers, gave Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme to guarantee that it could not develop a nuclear weapon -- something it has always denied wanting to do.

Three years later, then-president Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the agreement and reimposed heavy sanctions against Iran.