Iran invites IAEA chief for talks before showdown with West

UN nuclear watchdogchiefRafael Grossi will fly to Tehran this weekend fortalksthat may ease a standoff betweenIranand theWestjust as it threatens to escalate and scupper negotiations on reviving theIrannuclear deal.

Three diplomats who follow the International Atomic Energy Agency closely told Reuters that Grossi's tripbeforenext week's meeting of theIAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors was confirmed. Two said he would meet the new head of the Atomic Energy Organization ofIran, Mohammad Eslami, on Sunday.

TheIAEAandIran's envoy to the agency later confirmed the trip and the meeting.

"Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi will meet with Vice-President of the Islamic Republic ofIranand Head of the AEOI, Mohammad Eslami, in Tehran on Sunday," theIAEAsaid, adding that Grossi was expected to hold a news conference at Vienna airport around 8:30 pm on Sunday.

TheIAEAinformed member states this week that there had been no progress on two central issues: explaining uranium traces found at several old, undeclared sites and getting urgent access to some monitoring equipment so the agency can continue to keep track of parts ofIran's nuclear programme as provided for by the 2015 deal.

Separate, indirecttalksbetween the United States andIranon both returning to compliance with the deal have been halted since June. Washington and its European allies have been urging hardline President Ebrahim Raisi's administration, which took office in August, to return to thetalks.

Under the 2015 deal betweenIranand major powers, Tehran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

Sanctions

President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the deal in 2018, re-introducing painful economic sanctions.Iranresponded as of 2019 by breaching many of the deal's core restrictions, like enriching uranium to a higher purity, closer to that suitable for use in nuclear weapons.

Western powers must decide whether to push for a resolution criticisingIranand raising pressure on it for stonewalling theIAEAat next week's meeting of the agency's 35-nation Board of Governors. A resolution could jeopardise the resumption oftalkson the deal as Tehran bristles at such moves.

Iran's Foreign Ministry warned against any such resolution.

"I hope the Board of Governors, under the influence of certain pressures, will not take any action that would destroy the process of customary cooperation betweenIranand the agency," said spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh, the Fars news agency reported.

The European parties to the 2015 dealBritain, France and Germany held a meeting with the United States in Paris on Friday to discuss how to react at theIAEAboard and to review options ifIrancontinues to stall on returning to negotiations. But diplomats said no decisions had been taken as of yet.

Countries on theIAEABoard of Governors will be watching Grossi's visit to see whetherIranyields either on granting access to the monitoring equipment to service it or offers the prospect of answers on the uranium particles found at the undeclared former sites.

Moves on those issues would make it less likely that a resolution is brought againstIran, diplomats say.