The chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said today (Thursday) that “reviving the nuclear deal under US President-elect Joe Biden will require a new agreement with Iran.”
Grossi in an interview with Reuters that there were too many violations to be able to simply return to the original agreement. “I can’t imagine them just saying, ‘We’re going back to square one,’ because it no longer exists. Obviously some protocol or appendix will be needed that will make clear what we need to do.”
He said, “There is more material (nuclear), more activity, more centrifuges, and more announcements. So what will happen with all this? This is a question that they have to decide on the political level.”
“What I see is that we are going back to December 2015 again,” Grossi said, referring to the month prior to the start of the implementation of the restrictions, after which a large amount of enriched uranium and nuclear equipment were quickly removed. “If they want to do it, they can do it pretty quickly. But all of these things need to have a clear path.”
After outgoing President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2018 agreement and re-imposed sanctions on Iran, it responded by violating most of its commitments. Tehran claims it can lift its response measures quickly if Washington removes the sanctions.