iran has agreed to allow limited nuclear
inspections for three more months
the head of the international atomic
energy agency negotiated the temporary
agreement
at crisis talks in tehran it could give
negotiators some breathing room as they
struggle to revive the
2015 nuclear deal between iran and world
powers
for rafael grossi the clock was ticking
the moment he touched down in tehran
he faced an imminent deadline to
convince iranian leadership to drop a
new law that would suspend un
inspections of its nuclear facilities
but iran first wanted relief from oil
and banking sanctions
for now grossi has secured an extension
of sorts
we reached a temporary
bilateral technical
understanding whereby
the agency is going to continue its
necessary verification
and monitoring activities for a period
of up to three months but crossy
conceded that the un's watchdog will
have
less access than before iran's foreign
minister muhammad zarif has already said
tehran will restrict access to security
cameras at nuclear sites
it is clear that they won't get a
footage
as long as the united states has not
come back to full implementation
of its agreement zarif is also demanding
compensation for sanctions he claims
caused one trillion dollars worth of
damage to iran's economy
under the terms of the agreement with
world powers reached in 2015
the iaea can inspect nuclear facilities
in the country at short notice
but after the usa unilaterally withdrew
from the deal and reimposed sanctions
two years ago
iran suspended compliance with most of
its key commitments
under the pact thank you so much the
current u.s administration under joe
biden has signaled it is
open to rejoining the deal and lifting
sanctions but the two countries both
want the other to make the first move
last summer grossi had struck a deal to
allow inspectors to visit
two suspected nuclear sites following
months of negotiation
now he has passed the baton onto others
my hope the hope of the iaea has been to
be able to stabilize
a situation which was very unstable
and i think this technical
understanding does it
so that other political consultations at
other levels
can take place once more diplomats are
on the clock
with three months to find common ground
now let's bring in cornelius an iran
expert at the german council on foreign
relations
this is clearly progress but how likely
is it for common ground to be found
well it's progress in the sense that uh
what we've seen last week
a coming together of the other partners
of the iran nuclear deal
the united states france germany and the
united kingdom
to make progress and offer
renewed talks we haven't seen direct
talks between the united states and iran
over the past years on this and with the
signal willingness of the incoming
united states president
joe biden to enter into such talks
this is an important moment and the iaea
the international atomic energy agency
has paid the ground uh for these
diplomatic negotiations now to take
place so that's a crucial development of
those past couple of days
you mentioned the the ongoing
negotiations just remind us at what
state are those negotiations to salvage
that nuclear deal
um it's it's a bit difficult and as you
mentioned uh in the clip
um both sides the united states and iran
want the other to move first
one to lift sanctions and the other to
go back into compliance
and this is where a possible third party
should come into play
uh the europeans the european union is
the guardian of this nuclear deal
and they should find ways um technical
diplomatic ways
uh a sequencing so that both sides can
can claim victory as you will towards
their domestic audience
but on substance they find together and
this is what this
three window three month window of
opportunity is for
so what do you think how credible are
tehran's threats of
scaling back its commitment to the deal
if the
sanctions are not lifted
um they appear to be quite credible we
have seen over the past
uh two years two and a half years ever
since the united states has left
the deal that tehran followed up on its
announcements
step by step they have reduced their
commitments
and even this is only a temporary
extension
they have a law passed by parliament
which obliges the government
to do so and they have elections coming
up
by the summer mid-june a presidential
election is due
so they are also under some sort of
pressure at the home front
um to live up to their words um and as
we have seen over the past years as i
said they have done so
so there is some pressure out there and
the the parties of the deal
had better come together and negotiate
how
they can all come back into compliance
cornelius aldebar from the german
council on foreign relations
thank you very much
thank you