Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi arrived in Tehran on Feb. 20. As reported by Deutsche Welle, “‘He was met in Tehran by Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA Kazem Gharibabadi and Iran Atomic Energy Organization official Behrouz Kamalvandi,’ Gharibabadi tweeted Saturday evening. He will meet Iranian nuclear officials including Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the country’s nuclear department, and a vice-president to President Hassan Rouhani.”
His meetings are expected to continue through today. By midday on Sunday, Gharibabadi tweeted, “Iran and the IAEA held fruitful discussions based on mutual respect, the result of which will be released this evening.”
In December 2020, Iran’s parliament approved a bill that “would suspend part of UN inspections of its nuclear facilities under a 2015 nuclear deal, if European signatories to the deal do not provide relief from oil and banking sanctions by Feb. 23. It will also stop implementation of the additional protocol that allows the IAEA inspectors to carry out more intrusive inspections to Iran’s nuclear facilities.”
