International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said in a video appearance before three European Parliament committees that it was important for the JCPOA powers to use this three-month “diplomatic window of opportunity” that Iran has granted, AP reported.
“Admittedly it is limited, but it allows to maintain a record of the basic activities that are taking place,” Grossi said. “Granted it is not the same as the whole access that we used to have.”
“In this time period the parties involved will hopefully be able to achieve, or at least start to move back to the JCPOA,” he said.
Asked about Iran’s insistence that the US take the first step, he noted over the past two years Iran has accumulated a lot of nuclear material and new capacities and used the time for “honing their skills in these areas.”
Grossi said he had been talking to both sides in his agency’s “impartial neutral role” and did think that a US return to the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, was possible.
“They want to come back,” he said. “But of course ... there are a number of issues that still need to be clarified. So it’s not impossible. It is difficult, but not impossible.”
HJ/PR