IAEA chief urges Iran to ‘immediately’ open up suspected nuclear sites

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has urged Iran to stop blocking an investigation into three possible nuclear sites.

IAEA  chief Rafael Grossi made the call at a meeting of the agency’s governing board in Vienna on Monday.

“I call on Iran to cooperate immediately and fully with the agency, including by providing prompt access to the locations specified by the agency,” Grossi said.

Grossi had reported in February that Tehran is refusing to answer questions about three locations where nuclear material may have been used or stored in the past, before Iran concluded its 2015 nuclear deal with major powers.

Without Iran’s cooperation, the IAEA will find it difficult to confirm whether or not the country has declared all its nuclear materials, Grossi said.

Iran’s diplomatic mission in Vienna said in a statement last week that it did not allow the visits because the IAEA’s probe is based on fabricated information that Israel claims it has smuggled out of Iran.

The mission added, however, that Tehran is “ready to enter into a political dialogue” with the IAEA on this matter.

According to Grossi, Iran has not implemented its January announcement that it would abandon all provisions of the nuclear pact, which is meant to prevent the country from building nuclear weapons.

However, Grossi’s report made clear that Iran has been multiplying its stock of enriched uranium and has been working on next-generation enrichment technologies.

The nuclear deal, which the U.S. abandoned in 2018, was designed to curb uranium enrichment as this process could be used to make nuclear warheads.