Sasan Karimi, a lecturer at the Faculty of World Studies at the University of Tehran, in an interview with an ILNA reporter, in response to the question that according to Mr. Eslami, officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency are scheduled to travel to Tehran, what is your analysis of this trip and whether we are likely to witness serious changes in the type of behavior of the Agency towards Iran, said: The trips of Agency officials that occur at the invitation of Iran are not a solution in themselves. Trying to prevent pressure on the Board of Governors in a formal and short-term manner through this means may be effective the first time or two, but this cannot be repeated. The issue is not whether to travel or not to travel; in diplomacy, policy must first be made, a decision must be made, and then it must be implemented well through meetings and other means.
He added: "As we have seen to date, no solution has been found to resolve the dispute with the Agency in a fundamental way and effectively, taking into account the Agency's requirements, and for this reason, the trips typically do not go beyond the level of diplomatic interactions. In addition, the Agency's approach is at least at a technical level, and a suitably designed response must be given to their criticisms in terms of form, which requires serious technical, legal, and political expert work. This requires a movement that, unfortunately, we are not witnessing."
In response to the question that, according to Mr. Eslami, the basis of the trip is supposed to be about the obstacles and ambiguities in the Iran case and that Iran's approach will be interactive. What do you think this interactive approach will be like, Karimi said: "This is a positive comment. Basically, the tone of speaking about the Agency as an international organization should be different from that of countries and requires more expediency. It is obvious that the basis of this trip is the differences in the Iran case. But we need to see what "changing Iran's approach" means.
He added: As I said, we cannot move forward with the Agency in this way, which has been a crooked and confusing process for a year and a half, and it seems that unjustified costs have been imposed on Iran so far. We are on the verge of serious decisions by the Board of Governors, and the change in approach and its implementation must be of a content and verbal nature that can prevent the possible referral of the case to the Security Council or the triggering of the snapback mechanism; something that has not been done so far due to other international equations, but the preparations for this have been provided in the recent resolution of the Board of Governors.
In response to the question that in your opinion, it is possible that the Iranian safeguards case will be closed forever in this meeting? If this happens, what will be the possibility of resuming negotiations and cooperation between the Atomic Energy Organization and the Agency, Karimi said: It is not impossible, but with our current situation at the agency level and the approaches that we have witnessed in the past year and a half, it is very unlikely. Unless there are substantive changes in Iran's response and the way it responds. It should be noted that non-technical and non-legal matters will also indirectly affect the fate of the Iranian dispute file in the Board of Governors.
He added: The current tensions within the country and the increasing international pressures have made it easier to isolate and condemn Iran in international forums, and in this case, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and countries that have taken a moderate position can be more easily included in confronting Iran than in the past.
Karimi clarified: It seems that regardless of the strategies adopted and policies, the weakness of the agency and implementation of foreign policy, especially at the heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has become a bottleneck, and with the current negotiating cadre and the heads of Iran's missions to the Agency and the United Nations, we cannot expect an opening in Iranian policy, especially in relations with international organizations. Opening does not fall from the sky and requires initiative, knowledge, and experience in foreign policy, which, unfortunately, are sorely lacking at the level of our agency.
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