Talks between Iran and the US over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program are “in a very crucial” stage, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said on Thursday while on a visit to the Islamic Republic.
The comments by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi included an acknowledgment his agency would likely be key in verifying compliance by Iran should a deal be reached. Iran and the US are to meet again today in Rome for a new round of talks after last weekend’s first meeting in Oman.
Grossi’s visit also coincided with Saudi Arabian Minister of Defense Prince Khalid bin Salman’s, the highest-ranking official from the kingdom to visit Iran since the two countries reached a Chinese-mediated detente in 2023. That is as Saudi Arabia tries to end its decade-long war against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen — even as new, intense US airstrikes target them.
Photo: Iranian Foreign Ministry via AP
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program if a deal is not reached, while Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
“I’m not in a rush to do it, because I think that Iran has a chance to have a great country and to live happily without death — and I’d like to see that, that’s my first option,” Trump said during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the Oval Office when asked about a possible attack.
Grossi arrived in Iran on Wednesday night and met with Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi, who is now in Moscow for separate talks likely over the negotiations.
On Thursday, Grossi met with Atomic Energy Organization of Iran head Mohammad Eslami, then later toured a hall featuring some of Iran’s civilian nuclear projects.
“We know that we are in a very crucial, I would say, stage of this important negotiation, so I want to concentrate on the positive,” Grossi told Iranian media.
“There is a possibility of a good outcome. Nothing is guaranteed. We need to make sure that we put all of the elements in place ... in order to get to this agreement,” he said.
“We know we don’t have much time. So this is why I’m here. This is why I’m in contact with the United States as well,” he added.
Eslami said Iran expected the IAEA to “maintain impartiality and act professionally,” a report from the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said.
Since the nuclear deal’s collapse in 2018 with Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of the US from the accord, Iran has abandoned all limits on its program and enriches uranium to up to 60 percent purity — near weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.
Surveillance cameras installed by the IAEA have been disrupted, while Iran has barred some its most experienced inspectors. Iranian officials also have increasingly threatened that they could pursue atomic weapons, something the West and the IAEA have been worried about for years since Tehran abandoned an organized weapons program in 2003.
Grossi in an interview with a French newspaper said that “Iran has enough material to build not one but several bombs.”
“It’s like a jigsaw puzzle; they’ve got the pieces and one day they might be able to put them together,” he told Le Monde. “There’s still a long way to go before that happens. But they’re not far off, admittedly.”
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric called the upcoming Iran-US talks a “a good sign.”
“We very much hope that the dialogue between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran yields a positive outcome which will see the lowering of tensions in the Gulf region, in the Middle East and between the two countries,” he said.
The Burmese junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “in good health,” a day after her son said he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing. In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a
‘NO AMNESTY’: Tens of thousands of people joined the rally against a bill that would slash the former president’s prison term; President Lula has said he would veto the bill Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday demonstrated against a bill that advanced in Congress this week that would reduce the time former president Jair Bolsonaro spends behind bars following his sentence of more than 27 years for attempting a coup. Protests took place in the capital, Brasilia, and in other major cities across the nation, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife. On Copacabana’s boardwalk in Rio de Janeiro, crowds composed of left-wing voters chanted “No amnesty” and “Out with Hugo Motta,” a reference to the speaker of the lower house, which approved the bill on Wednesday last week. It is
‘EAST SHIELD’: State-run Belma said it would produce up to 6 million mines to lay along Poland’s 800km eastern border, and sell excess to nations bordering Russia and Belarus Poland has decided to start producing anti-personnel mines for the first time since the Cold War, and plans to deploy them along its eastern border and might export them to Ukraine, the deputy defense minister said. Joining a broader regional shift that has seen almost all European countries bordering Russia, with the exception of Norway, announce plans to quit the global treaty banning such weapons, Poland wants to use anti-personnel mines to beef up its borders with Belarus and Russia. “We are interested in large quantities as soon as possible,” Deputy Minister of National Defense Pawel Zalewski said. The mines would be part
Cozy knits, sparkly bobbles and Santa hats were all the canine rage on Sunday, as hundreds of sausage dogs and their owners converged on central London for an annual parade and get-together. The dachshunds’ gathering in London’s Hyde Park came after a previous “Sausage Walk” planned for Halloween had to be postponed, because it had become so popular organizers needed to apply for an events licence. “It was going to be too much fun so they canceled it,” laughed Nicky Bailey, the owner of three sausage dogs: Una and her two 19-week-old puppies Ember and Finnegan, wearing matching red coats and silver
RSS