The Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi said on Wednesday that talks with Iran aimed at ending an alleged dispute on explaining the origin of uranium particles found at apparently old but undeclared sites are at "a very difficult juncture."
According to Bloomberg, Grossi and Iran agreed in March on a three-month plan to discuss the issue.
"I suppose I should abstain from having a final conclusion at this point since we haven't finished the process yet but let me say that we are at a very difficult juncture at the moment," Grossi told a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Accoridng to the report, Grossi is due to report to the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors on how talks on the open issues have progressed by the time the Board starts a quarterly meeting on June 6.
"I hope that the time ... between now and the issuance of my report will (be) put to good use to come (up) at least with a start of a credible answer to these things."
The Vienna talks between the Iranian delegation and the delegations of the P4 + 1 (Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany) with the indirect involvement of the United States, which is not a JCPOA participant anymore after its illegal withdrawal from the deal in May 2018 were paused on March 11 at the request of the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell amid the US refusal to lift the illegitimate anti-Iran sanctions.
The US Treasury Department announced new sanctions on IRGC Quds Force in yet another sign of continued animosity towards the Iranian nation despite its claims of willingness to lift the Trump-era sanctions earlier today.
Tehran has insisted that it will come back to full abidance by the JCPOA only if the United States removes the sanctions it has imposed after its illegitimate pull out of the JCPOA in 2018 amid the indifference of the European participants in the deal to the violation of the deal by Washington.
Iran also says that the resumption of the Vienna talks awaits US political decision to lift the sanctions as the talks have proven to be futile so far.
KI