Grossi says willing to meet with Raeisi

In an interview with Pass Blue, he said "I am open to working with the next president of Iran and to hear Iran’s views. ."

"I want to sit down with the new leadership and build trust and a relationship as soon as we can. Because we are in this for the long haul," he added.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he said: "As I said at my last press conference, it is becoming increasingly difficult to extend or keep this arrangement, which is temporary. Are we going to continue the temporary agreement or not? Is June 24 the end of it? Because if it is, there are a number of things we need to do, starting with the erasure of the information [recorded on the cameras inside Iran’s nuclear plants]. This must be done in an appropriate way with our presence, as it is our equipment." 

being asked if he wants the information recorded on the cameras inside Iran’s nuclear plants to be erased, he explained that: "Of course not. But I also don’t want to continue in this way forever."

About being already limited in what IAEA inspectors can see, he said: "It is very limited. And this is why in my last report I included a table to show the things our inspectors are not seeing. This needs to be understood by the general public. So what I am trying to say is that right now, we should not be limited further, but at the same time, this temporary agreement is not a sustainable solution. This agreement cannot be seen as a replacement for a correct verification approach to a nuclear program of the dimension of Iran. We are on a ventilator."

"I hope that in the time between now and then we will make real progress. If this is not the case, my reports to the board of governors are very transparent, and I will explain this very clearly. But I hope we will not be in that situation," he added.

About the ongoing JCPOA talks in Vienna, he said: "We are not a party to the negotiations. We try to support the process by consulting with the negotiators. We help them to see how the things that they negotiate the fare in terms of a reality check and verifiability."

"We need a system that will allow us to have all the visibility of Iran’s nuclear program. This is going to be a complex operation because for the original Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, there was a different situation when it comes to Iran’s nuclear capabilities. A lot has changed in the past years in this regard. My right and obligation are to tell them what I need as an inspector, to make sure that the ambitious agreement is based on solid information. But the politics of the agreement are decided on at the Grand Hotel in Vienna."

Answering how much of Iran’s nuclear program suffered as a result of the explosion at the Natanz nuclear plant, one of Iran’s main nuclear installations, on April 11, he explained: "My last report in a way reflects this. The assessment of the damage is, of course, a matter for the Iranian security services. But one metric that you can look at is the pace of increase in the production volumes. It has been a serious event, and this shows in the activity there. But we also see lots of work in terms of replacement of centrifuges [machines to enrich uranium], so the activity has continued."

HJ/PR