IAEA chief says talks on access to Karaj site fruitless

The American Wall Street Journal has said in a report on the IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi to Tehran on Tuesday that the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog agency left Iran late Tuesday after failing to reach a deal to allow inspectors access to a factory-making equipment for Tehran’s nuclear program.

According to the US newspaper, the IAEA director-general traveled to Tehran on Tuesday to hold talks with the head of Iran's nuclear agency and the Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. He hoped to win access to the Karaj site for his inspectors and restore the Agency's cameras that had been removed after an explosion at the plant in June. Iran has blamed the Israeli regime for the terrorist action on the site while the regime has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.

The Wall Street Journal's reporter in Brussels Laurence Norman claimed in a series of tweets on Wednesday that Director General Rafael M. Grossi updated the Board of Governors on different topics including his Tuesday visit to Tehran on Wednesday.

The American journalist quoted diplomats as saying that Grossi returned from Tehran "empty-handed" on Agency access to Karaj centrifuge assembly plant after his meeting with the Iranian agency's head Mohammad Eslami. 

These claims and remarks by the US journalist and the IAEA chief come at a time while Grossi said in an interview after his meetings in Tehran that had held "very constructive" talks with the Iranian officials. 

Meanwhile, Reuters has reported on Grossi's remarks to IAEA Bog that he said that negotiations he had held in Tehran this week over Iran's nuclear program had proved inconclusive.

"On 23 November 2021, I had meetings in Tehran with the Vice President of Iran and Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian," the IAEA chief told Wednesday session of BoG, according to Reuters.

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