UN Watchdog Chief Believes Inspectors Will Return To Iran This Year After Europe Meeting

Iranian diplomats have concluded talks with their European counterparts from Germany, the UK, and France on Friday to revive nuclear negotiations, amid warnings from the three European nations that they may activate the “snapback” UN sanctions mechanism outlined in the defunct 2015 nuclear agreement.

The Istanbul-hosted meeting lasted about four hours and marks the first such engagement since Israel’s mid-June strikes on Iran, which triggered a 12-day conflict, at the end of which the US intervened on Israel’s side and bombed three key nuclear facilities.

Throughout the June war, top Iranian military commanders, nuclear experts, and hundreds of civilians were killed. Iran has said its nuclear sites were ‘destroyed’ but still maintains the capability and “right” to enrich uranium for its domestic nuclear energy program.

Following Friday’s talks, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, who attended alongside senior diplomat Majid Takht-Ravanchi, described the discussions with the European powers as “serious, frank, and detailed”.

The talks were focused on sanctions relief and nuclear concerns, which each side expressed willingness to continue the discussions.

Despite Iran recently booting IAEA nuclear inspectors from the country, the UN nuclear watchdog remains optimistic of the return of a monitoring regimen:

The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog is optimistic that inspectors will be able to return to Iran later this year, he said on Friday.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters that it was important to start discussing with Tehran the modalities of restarting visits.

“We need to agree on where to go, how to do it. We need to listen to Iran in terms of what they consider should be the precautions to be taken,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi has once again warned that if “snapback” sanctions are reinstated, Iran would respond with punitive countermeasures, including the possibility of withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The NPT requires non-nuclear states to keep their nuclear activities strictly for peaceful, civilian use. Notably, Israel, which is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons – possibly dozens or over one hundred – has not signed the treaty, and Tehran has long blasted this international hypocrisy.

Under the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, Tehran committed to restricting its nuclear program to civilian purposes in return for the lifting of UN sanctions but the historic agreement included a “snapback” provision allowing for the reimposition of those sanctions if Iran is found to be in violation of the agreement. But after Trump withdrew the US from the JCPOA in April 2018, Iran has been saying essentially ‘what deal?’ …and that Washington can no longer be trusted.