UN atomic agency head to talk with Iran

Iran says that the head of the International Atomic Energy Organization is arriving in the country for talks with Iranian officials.

Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, said in a tweet that Rafael Grossi is arriving Saturday, and will travel to Tehran this afternoon. He’s scheduled to meet Iran’s vice-president and head of the country’s atomic organization, Mohammad Eslami, on Sunday.

Gharibabadi also said the two sides will issue a joint statement.

It will be Grossi’s first visit to the country’s since new president Ebrahim Raisi took office.

Talks between Iran and world powers over limiting Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief have been idle since June, and Raisi took office in August.

The two major issues being negotiated are the rollback of American sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump’s administration after it withdrew from the deal, and the return of Iran to compliance with restrictions imposed on its nuclear programme.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said on Wednesday that his country was “transparent” about its nuclear activities, the day after the UN atomic watchdog criticised it for lack of cooperation.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s serious cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency is a clear example of Iran’s will to be transparent about its nuclear activities,” Raisi told European Council chief Charles Michel by phone, according to an Iranian presidency statement.

“Of course, if the IAEA has a non-constructive approach, it’s unreasonable to expect a constructive response from Iran,” Raisi added.

“What’s more, non-constructive actions of course upset the negotiation process.”