The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami made the remarks speaking to the reporters on the sidelines of the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
"The 5+1 group is responsible for the matter of negotiations. Regarding the JCPOA, the International Atomic Energy Agency is not a negotiating party," Eslami stressed.
"Relations between Iran and IAEA are based on safeguards and NPT, and monitoring continues," he added, ruling out media reports on the decrease of the Agency's monitoring in Iran.
"Grossi has expressed his satisfaction with the cooperation with Iran and has expressed hope for the return of JCPOA. The important point is that the International Atomic Energy Agency is not a negotiating party for us in the JCPOA," Eslami underlined.
Grossi in an interview with CBC News published on Saturday said it is important to keep interacting with Iran despite slim chances of reviving the JCPOA.
“Probably there could be a return to the negotiating table, but if the interactions between Iran and the agency are seen or assessed as bad and the cooperation is not good, the chances are zero,” Grossi noted.
Recently, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that Tehran is exchanging messages with Washington through various channels during talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal and the removal of sanctions.
He added that the course of Tehran's cooperation with the IAEA within technical frameworks will soon witness great progress.
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