VIENNA: Iran’s new cooperation framework with the UN nuclear watchdog includes “all facilities and installations in Iran,” agency head Rafael Grossi said Wednesday.
Iran agreed a deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Tuesday, after it suspended cooperation following the war with Israel in June.
The 12-day war saw Israeli and US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, which the IAEA has not been able to access since.
Grossi said the agreed document “provides for a clear understanding of the procedures for inspections.”
It “includes all facilities and installations in Iran, and it also contemplates the required reporting on all the attacked facilities, including the nuclear material present at those,” Grossi told the Vienna-based agency’s Board of Governors meeting.
Tehran’s suspension of cooperation saw the agency’s inspectors leave Iran, before a team briefly returned last month to oversee the replacement of fuel at the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Access to nuclear sites now requires the approval of the Supreme National Security Council, and the most recent inspection was not granted access to other key sites, including Fordo and Natanz, which were hit in the June strikes.
“Iran and the agency will now resume cooperation in a respectful and comprehensive way,” Grossi said, adding the “practical steps... need to be implemented now.”
“There may be difficulties and issues to be resolved for sure, but we now know what we have to do,” he added.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday that Iran would end cooperation with the agency “in the event of any hostile action against Iran.”
“I emphasize that in the event of any hostile action against Iran, including the reinstatement of lifted UN Security Council resolutions, Iran will consider these practical steps ended,” he said.
In August, Britain, France and Germany initiated steps to reimpose UN sanctions after weeks of warnings, citing Iran’s continued non-compliance with its commitments under a 2015 nuclear agreement.
Iran has condemned the move as “illegal” and warned that it could lead to the exclusion of the European powers from any future negotiations.
While Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, Western countries accuse the government of seeking an atomic weapon — a claim Tehran has systematically denied.
UN nuclear watchdog says new deal with Iran covers ‘all facilities’
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UN nuclear watchdog says new deal with Iran covers ‘all facilities’
- Iran’s new cooperation framework with the UN nuclear watchdog includes “all facilities and installations in Iran,” agency head Rafael Grossi said Wednesday
Palestinian coach gets hope, advice from mum in Gaza tent
- The manager, himself a former left-back, says he wants his players to convey the spirit of his mother and Gazans like her
DOHA: Coach Ehab Abu Jazar is guiding a national team that carries on its shoulders all the hopes and sorrows of Palestinian football, but it is his mother, forced by war to live in a Gaza tent, who is his main inspiration and motivation.
The war that broke out following Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 put an end to Palestinian league matches, and left athletes in exile fearing for their loved ones in Gaza.
But Abu Jazar’s mother refuses to let the conflict overshadow the sporting dreams of her son, to whom she feeds tactical advice from the rubble of the Palestinian territory by phone.
“She talks to me about nothing but the team. She wants the focus to remain solely on the tournament,” the 45-year-old manager told AFP.
“My mother asks me about the players, who will play as starters and who will be absent, about the tactics, the morale of the players and the circumstances surrounding them.”
The manager, himself a former left-back, says he wants his players to convey the spirit of his mother and Gazans like her.
“We always say that we are a small Palestinian family representing the larger family,” he said.
“Undoubtedly, it puts pressure on us, but it’s positive pressure.”
The Palestinian team are 96th in the FIFA rankings, and their hope of playing in their first World Cup vanished this summer.
But the squad, most of whom have never set foot in Gaza, is within reach of the Arab Cup quarter-finals, keeping their message of resilience alive.
Palestine play Syria in their final Arab Cup group match Sunday, where a draw would be enough to achieve an unprecedented feat for the team.
He said progress would show the world that the Palestinians, if given the right conditions, can “excel in all fields.”
- ‘Genes of resilience’ -
Abu Jazar finished his playing career in 2017 before managing the Palestinian U-23 team and eventually taking the top job last year.
After the war broke out, his family home was destroyed, displacing his mother in Gaza, like most of the territory’s population during the height of the conflict.
He now feels pressure to deliver for them after witnessing from exile the horrors of the war, which came to a halt in October thanks to a fragile US-backed ceasefire.
“At one point, it was a burden, especially at the beginning of the war,” he said.
“We couldn’t comprehend what was happening. But we possess the genes of resilience.
“If we surrender and give in to these matters, we as a people will vanish.”
In her maternal advisory role, Abu Jazar’s mum, who goes by the traditional nickname Umm Ehab, is only contactable when she has power and signal.
But she works around the clock to find a way to watch the team’s matches from Al-Mawasi camp.
“My mother and siblings... struggle greatly to watch our matches on television. They think about how to manage the generator and buy fuel to run it and connect it to the TV,” he said.
This determination is pushing him to give Gazans any respite from the reality of war.
“This is what keeps us standing, and gives us the motivation to bring joy to our people,” he said.
“All these circumstances push us to fight on the field until the last breath.”
