Iran, IAEA agree in principle to resolve technical issues: FM tells Chinese counterpart

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says Tehran and the UN nuclear agency have reached an agreement in principle to resolve their outstanding issues.

The official made the remarks during an online discussion with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Wednesday, adding that Iran and the agency were seeking to "issue a joint statement at the earliest opportunity."

The comments came a day after the International Atomic Energy Agency's Director General, Rafael Grossi ended a two-day visit to the Islamic Republic, during which he held various meetings with senior Iranian officials, including Amir-Abdollahian himself.

In a tweet earlier on Wednesday, the top Iranian diplomat described his talks with the IAEA chief as "cordial, frank and fruitful" and said they "reached good agreements on continuing cooperation."

"Yet, to work out a text, we need work on a few words. Agreement is possible," he further said in his tweet, warning "politicization of technical matters is unproductive."

He also said that a meting will be held soon to finalize the text of their agreement. 

Elsewhere in his talks with the Chinese foreign minister, Amir-Abdollahian also reflected on the country's participation in upcoming talks in the Austrian capital of Vienna, which have been examining the prospect of removal of the United States' inhumane sanctions against Iran.

Interview with Rafael Grossi

This edition of the program is an interview with Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi.

The US resumed the sanctions in 2018 after leaving a historic nuclear agreement between the Islamic Republic and world powers, which is officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Amir-Abdollahian said the Islamic Republic was completely willing to participate in the negotiations with the aim of reaching "a good agreement."

Such an agreement, he added, could materialize shortly if Washington and its European allies in the deal--the UK, France, and Germany--were likewise willing to resume their commitments under JCPOA.

The European trio have been in contravention of the JCPOA by cooperating with the American sanction regime.

The Chinese official, for his part, rated Grossi's trip to Iran as a "positive" development. He also considered the Islamic Republic's standpoint on the JCPOA's potential revival to be "fair."

Also on Tuesday, Behrouz Kamalvandi, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran's spokesman, said Iran and the IAEA had, during Grossi's visit, come to some "general agreements" concerning "the manner in which they were supposed to pursue various issues of common interest."

"The two sides agreed to continue their consultations towards completing the framework and details of the manner in which they were supposed to continue their cooperation," Kamalvandi noted.

Responding to a question by Press TV in an exclusive interview on Tuesday, Grossi described the quality of the talks as "constructive," and insisted that interaction between the two sides was to continue until resolution of the outstanding differences.

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