(Adds context, more Grossi quotes)
March 4 (Reuters) - The head of the International Atomic
Energy Agency said on Saturday talks were ongoing with Iran on
two sets of important matters including the science sector, and
there was "great expectation" about the process.
Rafael Grossi began meetings in Tehran on Friday that
diplomats said were meant to push Iran to cooperate with an IAEA
investigation into uranium traces found at undeclared sites that
had been enriched close to nuclear-weapons grade.
"Globally speaking, there are two sets of matters that are
important. Clearly, there is great expectation about our joint
work in order to move forward in the issues that Iran and the
agency are working on, to clarify and to bring credible
assurances about the nuclear programme in Iran," Grossi told
reporters in Tehran.
"The second set of issues, which is very important, has
to do with scientific, technical cooperation we are having and
will continue to have with Iran," he said, speaking alongside
Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran.
Grossi said the talks were taking place in an "atmosphere of
work, honesty and cooperation".
His visit comes amid contacts with Tehran on the origin of
the uranium particles enriched to up to 83.7% purity, very close
to the 90% threshold for weaponisation, at its underground
Fordow enrichment plant, according to a report by the U.N.
nuclear watchdog seen by Reuters.
Eslami told reporters on Saturday that the Islamic
Republic was enriching uranium up to 60% fissile purity.
Under a 2015 agreement with six world powers, Iran curbed
its disputed uranium enrichment programme in return for relief
from international sanctions. But the accord began to unravel in
2018 after then-U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out and
reimposed tough U.S. sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to
start violating the deal's strict limits on enrichment.
Iran's stonewalling of a years-long IAEA investigation
into uranium traces found at three undeclared sites prompted the
United Nations watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors to pass a
resolution at its last quarterly meeting in November ordering
Tehran to cooperate urgently with the inquiry.
That cooperation has not materialised and Grossi hoped a
meeting with hardline President Ebrahim Raisi would help smooth
the way towards ending the deadlock, diplomats in Europe said.
The board's next quarterly meeting starts on Monday.
Grossi said it was an “issue of necessity to have a very
deep, serious systematic dialogue with Iran. This is why I am
here. It’s been too long". He said he would "judge our degree of
satisfaction at the end of the day".
(Writing by Hatem Maher
Editing by Mark Heinrich)
