Interview with ILNA News Agency May 9, 2024 -
Regarding Grossi's talk about Iran taking operational steps, he said: I think Grossi meant taking specific steps in a way that can be measured. I think they mostly mean enrichment. Specific steps actually relate to two places and he would like to give up a large part and percentage of enrichment as the first step that Iran takes, and this is an excessive expectation.
In response to the question whether we will see a change in the presence of IAEA inspectors in light of these talks, Karimi said: Iran has never had a problem with inspectors. One of the rights of each IAEA member is to be able to refuse to accept some of the inspectors. The only consideration is that if it repeatedly refuses to accept the replaced inspectors, it will become problematic, and otherwise you can refuse to accept the inspection. Out of the large number of inspectors, Iran has refused to accept 8 for the reasons it provided, and has accepted 130 inspectors and has not shown any problems with its inspections. Therefore, the IAEA's words are useless.
Regarding the impact of this meeting on the track for the new round of sanctions relief negotiations, this international affairs analyst said: I do not think that a new track has been laid, but both Iran stands by its positions and the IAEA and the United States welcome the lack of escalation.
In response to the question of what is your assessment of the implementation of the remaining provisions of the statement, given that the negotiations between the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and Grossi place a strong emphasis on the March statement, the international affairs analyst said: The parties emphasized that they agree on the March 2023 document. Perhaps an idea could have been to issue a new statement, but according to my guess, they ultimately came to the conclusion that sticking to the same resolution and statement could be more useful. Therefore, it seems that emphasizing that statement means that the path continues, but it has been very slow anyway. It is likely that the success of the negotiations will be to increase the speed of resolving differences to some extent.
Regarding the achievements of the International Conference on Nuclear Science and Technology, he said: Iran has reached a point in technical, scientific and nuclear terms where it thinks it can have a say in the scientific community. But in the political sphere, this will be an influential process that will show what scientific and technological capabilities Iran has, which is definitely irreversible.
In response to the question that Mr. Grossi has made suggestions to Iran for future steps, what do you think these suggestions will include, Karimi said: Mr. Grossi has basically repeated his previous suggestions based on resolving the disputes about the two sites and the issues of Iran's JCPOA obligations, etc. According to Article 26 of the JCPOA, Iran has announced that it has no intention of unilaterally fulfilling its obligations under the JCPOA.
In response to the question of how feasible it is for an agreement to close the case of the two remaining disputed sites, this international affairs analyst said: Iran has answered the questions and the agency has raised doubts, but it seems that this issue is not very important and is more like making excuses. So I think it's not a very technical issue, and the agency will accept it when there is a political will to accept it.
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