Rafael Grossi, Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has warned that there is less and less room for maneuver as he prepares to travel to Tehran on Wednesday for important negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program.
Israel, Iran’s adversary, warned that the Islamic republic was “more exposed than ever to strikes on its nuclear facilities” just two days prior to his visit.
Israel has long accused Iran of attempting to develop nuclear weapons, which Tehran denies.
This year, the two countries exchanged missile strikes as tensions rose over Israel’s conflict with Iran’s allies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The strikes have exposed their years-long shadow battle and fanned worries of a larger Middle East confrontation.
While the IAEA is allowed to carry out inspections in Iran, Grossi stressed the need for “more visibility” into Iran’s nuclear program, given its scale and ambition.
Grossi’s travel comes after Donald Trump, who abandoned a hard-won nuclear deal with Iran signed by Barack Obama, was re-elected to the presidency.
Following 21 months of negotiations, major world countries, including the United States, signed a deal with Iran on its nuclear program in 2015.
The IAEA says Iran has considerably increased its reserves of enriched uranium to 60 percent, close to the 90 percent needed to develop an atomic bomb.
It is against this backdrop that Grossi is schedule to visit Iran for the first time since May.
In a statement, the IAEA said it would hold “high-level meetings with the Iranian government” and conduct “technical discussions on all aspects”.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who came to office in July with hopes of improving ties with the West and having sanctions lifted, favors a revival of the nuclear deal.
But all efforts to get the nuclear agreement off life support have so far failed.
The IAEA chief has repeatedly called for more cooperation from Iran.
In recent years, Tehran has decreased its interaction with the UN agency by deactivating surveillance devices needed to monitor the nuclear program and effectively barring its inspectors.
Iran’s nuclear program began in the late 1950s, when the US inked a civil cooperation deal with Iran’s then-Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Iran joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1970, which requires signatories to declare and place nuclear materials under IAEA monitoring.
However, with Iran threatening to retaliate against Israel for its latest missile strikes, some parliamentarians in the Islamic republic have urged the government to reconsider its nuclear doctrine and pursue nuclear weapons.
Parliamentarians urged Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to reconsider his long-standing religious edict or fatwa barring nuclear weapons.
The Islamic Republic has maintained its stance of not acquiring nuclear weapons, stating that all nuclear activities are benign.
