Key points
- In 2015, Iran signed an agreement to limit its nuclear activities
- Trump unilaterally withdrew US from the deal in 2018
- Meeting with IAEA “part of our ongoing engagement with the agency”: Iranian spokesman
ISLAMABAD: Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi will meet United Nations (UN) nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna on Monday, the Foreign Ministry said.
Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was “part of our ongoing engagement with the agency”, according to AFP.
The meeting in the Austrian capital comes after Gharibabadi took part in talks with his Russian and Chinese counterparts in Beijing on Friday.
“As threats against Iran’s peaceful nuclear facilities have increased, it is natural for us to intensify consultations with the IAEA,” Baqaei said.
On March 7, US President Donald Trump said he had written to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging new talks on the country’s nuclear programme but warning of possible military action if it refuses.
Peaceful purposes
For decades, Western countries led by the United States have suspected Tehran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, according to AFP.
Iran rejects these claims, insisting its nuclear activities are solely for peaceful purposes, including energy production.
In 2015, Iran signed an agreement with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany to limit its nuclear activities.
Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018.
In recent months, Iran has held several rounds of talks with Britain, France and Germany in a bid to revive the agreement, which had lifted sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear activities, according to AFP.
“Maximum pressure”
According to a VOA report, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi met Iran’s top diplomat in November 2024. During his first term in the White House from 2017 to 2021, Trump was the architect of a policy called “maximum pressure” which reimposed sweeping US economic sanctions that had been lifted under a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.
