TEHRAN: UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi arrived in Iran Monday, where he is expected to speak at a conference and meet officials for talks on Tehran’s nuclear program.
The visit comes at a time of heightened regional tensions and with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) criticizing Iran for lack of cooperation on inspections and other outstanding issues.
News agencies reported Grossi’s arrival “at the head of a delegation to participate in the nuclear conference and negotiate with top nuclear and political officials of the country.”
He met with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and is scheduled to meet Atomic Energy Organization of Iran chief Mohammad Eslami.
Grossi later said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that at his meeting with the foreign minister he proposed “concrete practical measures” with the “aim of restoring process of confidence building and increasing transparency.”
Grossi is also expected to deliver a speech at Iran’s first International Conference on Nuclear Science and Technology, which began on Monday.
At its opening ceremony, Eslami expressed hopes of cooperation with the IAEA, saying this was “at the forefront of the Islamic republic of Iran’s policies.”
“We hope that the agency can play its role as an independent international institution free from political pressures,” he added.
The three-day event is being held in Isfahan province, home to the Natanz uranium enrichment plant and where strikes attributed to Israel hit last month.
IAEA and Iranian officials reported “no damage” to nuclear facilities after the reported attack on Isfahan.
This was widely seen as Israel’s response to Iran’s first-ever direct attack on its arch-foe days earlier, which itself was retaliation for a deadly strike on Tehran’s Damascus consulate.
On Wednesday Eslami said he was “sure that these negotiations will further help clear ambiguities, and we will be able to strengthen our relations with the agency.”
Iran has in recent years deactivated IAEA monitoring devices at its nuclear facilities and barred inspectors, according to the UN agency.
Grossi last visited in March 2023 and met top officials including President Ebrahim Raisi.
Iran has suspended its compliance with caps on nuclear activities set by a landmark 2015 deal with major powers after the United States in 2018 unilaterally withdrew from the agreement and reimposed sweeping sanctions.
Tensions between Iran and the IAEA have repeatedly flared since the deal fell apart, and EU-mediated efforts have so far failed both to bring Washington back on board and to get Tehran to again comply with the terms of the accord.
Last year, Iran slowed the pace of its uranium enrichment, which was seen as a goodwill gesture while informal talks began with the United States.
But the Vienna-based UN nuclear agency said Iran accelerated the production of 60-percent enriched uranium in late 2023.
Enrichment levels of around 90 percent are required for military use.
Tehran has consistently denied wanting to develop nuclear weapons, insisting that its atomic activities were entirely peaceful.
In February, the IAEA said in a confidential report seen by AFP that Iran’s estimated stockpile of enriched uranium had reached 27 times the limit set out in the 2015 accord.
On Sunday, the official IRNA news agency said Grossi’s visit provided “an opportunity for the two sides to share their concerns,” especially regarding IAEA inspectors.
Iran in September withdrew the accreditation of several inspectors, a move the UN agency described at the time as “extreme and unjustified.”
Tehran said its decision was a consequence of “political abuses” by the United States, France, Germany and Britain.
Eslami has previously said the IAEA has “more than 130 inspectors” working in Iran.
On Monday, he insisted that the UN body carries out more inspections in Iran than in any other part of the world.
“Our nuclear capacity is 3 percent of the world and the (IAEA) inspection stands at 22 percent,” he said.
IAEA chief in Iran as concern grows over nuclear activity
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IAEA chief in Iran as concern grows over nuclear activity
- Grossi met with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and is scheduled to meet Atomic Energy Organization of Iran chief Mohammad Eslami
UN Security Council members blast Israel’s West Bank plans on eve of Trump’s Board of Peace meeting
- Pakistan denounced Israel’s contentious West Bank settlement project during the meeting as a “clear violation of international law”
- Pakistan is the only country on the 15-member council that also accepted an invitation to join US President Trump's Board of Peace
UNITED NATIONS: Members of the United Nations Security Council called Wednesday for the Gaza ceasefire deal to become permanent and blasted Israeli efforts to expand control in the West Bank as a threat to prospects of a two-state solution, coming on the eve of President Donald Trump’s first Board of Peace gathering to discuss the future of the Palestinian territories.
The high-level UN session in New York was originally scheduled for Thursday but was moved up after Trump announced the board’s meeting for the same day and it became clear that it would complicate travel plans for diplomats planning to attend both. It is a sign of the potential for overlapping and conflicting agendas between the United Nations’ most powerful body and Trump’s new initiative, whose broader ambitions to broker global conflicts have raised concerns in some countries that it may attempt to rival the UN Security Council.
Pakistan, the only country on the 15-member council that also accepted an invitation to join the Board of Peace, denounced Israel’s contentious West Bank settlement project during the meeting as “null and void” and said it constitutes a “clear violation of international law.”
“Israel’s recent illegal decisions to expand its control over the West Bank are gravely disturbing,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said.
The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Indonesia also attended the Security Council’s monthly Mideast meeting after many Arab and Islamic countries requested last week that it discuss Gaza and the West Bank before some of them head to Washington.
“Annexation is a breach of the UN Charter and of the most fundamental rules of international law,” Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour said. “It is a breach of President Trump’s plan, and constitutes an existential threat to ongoing peace efforts.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that attention was not on the UN session and that the focus of the international world would be on the Board of Peace meeting.
Saar also accused the council of being “infected with an anti-Israeli obsession” and insisted that no nation has a stronger right than its “historical and documented right to the land of the Bible.”
Bigger ambitions for the Board of Peace
The board to be chaired by Trump was originally envisioned as a small group of world leaders overseeing his 20-point plan for Gaza’s future. But the Republican president’s new vision for the board to be a mediator of worldwide conflicts has led to skepticism from major allies.
While more than 20 countries have so far accepted an invitation to join the board, close US partners, including France, Germany and others, have opted not to join yet and renewed support for the UN, which also is in the throes of major reforms and funding cuts.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said there is an opportunity for the UN’s most powerful body to help build “a better future” for Israelis and Palestinians despite the “cycle of violence and suffering” over the more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas.
“Gaza must not get stuck in a no man’s land between peace and war,” Cooper said as she opened the meeting.
Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, appeared to criticize countries that had not yet signed on to the Board of Peace, saying that unlike the Security Council, the board is “not talking, it is doing.”
“We are hearing the chattering class criticizing the structure of the board, that it’s unconventional, that it’s unprecedented,” Waltz said Wednesday. “Again, the old ways were not working.”
The Security Council is meeting a day after nearly all of its 15 members — minus the United States — and dozens of other diplomats joined Palestinian ambassador Mansour as he read a statement on behalf of 80 countries and several organizations condemning Israel’s latest actions in the West Bank, demanding an immediate reversal and underlining “strong opposition to any form of annexation.”
In the last several weeks, Israel has launched a contentious land regulation process that will deepen its control in the occupied West Bank. Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said it amounts to “de facto sovereignty” that will block the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Outraged Palestinians, Arab countries and human rights groups have called the moves an illegal annexation of the territory, home to roughly 3.4 million Palestinians who seek it for a future state.
‘A pivotal moment in the Middle East’
The UN meeting also delved into the US-brokered ceasefire deal that took effect Oct. 10. UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo and Israeli and Palestinian civil society representatives gave briefings for the first time since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that launched the war.
Hiba Qasas, a Palestinian who is founding executive director of Geneva-based Principles for Peace Foundation, and Nadav Tamir, a former Israeli diplomat who is executive director of J Street Israel, both said they represent a strong coalition of Israelis and Palestinians who believe the only way to end the conflict is through a two-state solution.
“Israel cannot remain the democratic homeland of the Jewish people if Palestinians are denied a homeland of their own. Our futures are interdependent,” Tamir said.
DiCarlo of the UN said this is “a pivotal moment in the Middle East” that opens the possibility for the region to move in a new direction. “But that opening is neither assured nor indefinite,” she said, and whether it will be sustained depends on decisions in the coming weeks.
“The Board of Peace meeting in Washington, D.C., tomorrow is an important step,” she said.
Aspects of the ceasefire deal have moved forward, including Hamas releasing all the hostages it was holding and increased amounts of humanitarian aid getting into Gaza, though the UN says the level is insufficient. A new technocratic committee has been appointed to administer Gaza’s daily affairs.
But the most challenging steps lie ahead, including the deployment of an international security force, disarming Hamas and rebuilding Gaza.
Trump said this week that the Board of Peace members have pledged $5 billion toward Gaza reconstruction and will commit thousands of personnel to international stabilization and police forces for the territory. He didn’t provide details. Indonesia’s military says up to 8,000 of its troops are expected to be ready by the end of June for a potential deployment to Gaza as part of a humanitarian and peace mission.
