IAEA Board of Governors calls for intensifying cooperation with Iran

MOSCOW. Sept 16 (Interfax) - Participants in the current session of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors have called for resuming negotiations on the reinstatement of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and for stepping up IAEA-Iran cooperation, Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said.

"The IAEA BoG [Board of Governors] finished consideration of Iran-related issues at its current session. The prevailing view was that it is high time for Tehran to intensify cooperation with the Agency in order to settle outstanding issues," Ulyanov said on Twitter .

"The Governors also called for resumption of Vienna talks," he said.

In 2015, Iran and the P5+1, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, concluded a nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, to address the Iranian nuclear program, which compelled Iran to give IAEA inspectors access to its nuclear sites in exchange for the phased lifting of sanctions. In 2018, former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA and reinstated anti-Iranian sanctions, prompting Tehran to gradually cease the fulfilment of certain obligations.

At the end of February 2021, Iran restricted the access of IAEA inspectors to the nuclear sites they used to check within the framework of the JCPOA. On February 21, the sides signed a three-month agreement to continue certain kinds of inspections. The agreements were extended for another month in May.