Iran's President Massoud Pezeshkiyan, welcoming International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi in Tehran today, said he wanted to remove "doubts and ambiguities" regarding his country's nuclear program.
Grossi assessed that it is crucial that "joint work" with Iran can "avoid war".
Grossi said that it is necessary to obtain concrete results that will show that working together will improve the situation and generally move everyone away from conflict, and eventually from war.
"Iran's nuclear facilities should not be attacked," Grossi also said.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Aragshi nevertheless warned that Tehran will not negotiate under "threats and intimidation".
The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Mohamad Eslami, said that Iran will react "immediately" in case of foreign pressure, which was a reference to a possible critical resolution by London, Berlin and Paris in the Council of Governors of the UN IAEA agency.
Talks by the head of the IAEA in Tehran are seen as the last chance for diplomacy before Donald Trump's return to the White House in January, as Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that Iran is more vulnerable to strikes on its nuclear facilities than ever before.
According to the 2015 agreement between Iran and several countries, including the USA, concluded in Vienna after 21 months of negotiations, the easing of international sanctions against Iran was foreseen in exchange for guarantees that Iran would not seek to obtain atomic weapons, which Tehran strongly disputes. .
Three years later, Trump withdrew the US from that agreement and reimposed heavy sanctions on Iran.
Since then, Iran has significantly increased its reserves of enriched uranium to 60 percent, while according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, for atomic weapons, enrichment is required to close to 90 percent, and according to the 2015 agreement, the degree of uranium enrichment should not exceed only 3,65 .XNUMX percent.
Grossi is in Iran for the second time, and the first time was this year in May. He said that tomorrow, Friday, he will visit two uranium enrichment facilities - Fordo and Nantez to get a picture of the development of the program.
From 2021, Iran has significantly reduced inspections of its nuclear facilities, turned off surveillance cameras and denied accreditation to a group of experts.
In 1970, Iran ratified the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which requires signatories to declare their nuclear installations and place them under the control of the IAEA.
In the context of heightened tensions with Israel in recent years, several Iranian officials have publicly questioned whether they should even have an atomic bomb as a deterrent.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has been in power since 1989 and is the main decider on the most important issues, especially on nuclear, has forbidden any resort to nuclear weapons by religious decree.
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