International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi met Iran's top diplomat Thursday as he began crunch nuclear talks in Tehran weeks before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
During his first term in the White House from 2017 to 2021, Trump was the architect of a policy called "maximum pressure" which reimposed sweeping U.S. economic sanctions that had been lifted under a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.
Grossi, who arrived in Tehran late Wednesday, is expected "to negotiate with the country's top nuclear and political officials," Iran's official IRNA news agency reported.
Grossi described his meeting with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as "indispensable" in a post on X. Araghchi was Iran's chief negotiator in the talks that led to the 2015 deal.
For his part, Araghchi said the meeting was "important & straightforward" and renewed Iran's commitment to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
"We agreed to proceed with courage and good will. Iran has never left the negotiation table on its peaceful nuclear programme," he said in his post.
Araghchi said Iran was "willing to negotiate" based on the "national interest" and "inalienable rights," but was not "ready to negotiate under pressure and intimidation."
Grossi also met the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami, the Tasnim news agency reported.
Later, the IAEA chief is expected to meet President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Grossi's visit is his second to Tehran this year but his first since Trump's reelection.
In 2018, Trump unilaterally abandoned the 2015 deal that gave Iran relief from international sanctions in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program designed to prevent it developing a weapons capability, an ambition it has always denied.
Search for solutions
The following year, Iran started to gradually roll back its commitments under the deal, which barred it from enriching uranium to above 3.65%.
The IAEA says Iran has significantly expanded its stocks of uranium enriched to 60%, a level that has triggered international alarm as it is much closer to the 90% level needed for a nuclear warhead.
Grossi "will do what he can to prevent the situation going from bad to worse" given the significant differences between Tehran and Western capitals, said Ali Vaez, an Iran specialist at the Crisis Group, a U.S.-based think tank.
Iran has blamed the incoming U.S. president for the standoff.
"The one who left the agreement was not Iran, it was America," government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said Wednesday.
"Mr. Trump once tried the path of maximum pressure and saw that this path did not work."
Grossi's visit comes just days after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Iran was "more exposed than ever to strikes on its nuclear facilities."
The arch foes have exchanged unprecedented direct attacks in recent months as tensions have soared during the intensifying war between Israel and Iran allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Trump's looming return to the White House in January has only added to international fears of all-out conflict between Israel and Iran.
"The margins for maneuver are beginning to shrink," Grossi warned in an interview with AFP on Tuesday, adding that "it is imperative to find ways to reach diplomatic solutions."
Religious decree
Grossi has said that while Iran does not currently have a nuclear weapon, it does have plenty of enriched uranium that could eventually be used to make one.
Iran's president, who won election in July on a platform to improve ties with the West, has said he wants to revive the 2015 deal.
But all efforts to get the nuclear agreement off life support have failed.
The IAEA chief has repeatedly called for more cooperation from Iran.
In recent years, Tehran has switched off surveillance devices used to monitor its nuclear program and effectively barred IAEA inspectors.
The foundations of Iran's nuclear program date back to the late 1950s, when the United States signed a civil cooperation agreement with the Western-backed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
In 1970, Iran ratified the NPT, which requires signatory states to declare and place their nuclear materials under IAEA control.
But with Iran threatening to hit back at Israel for its latest missile strikes, some lawmakers have called on the government to revise its nuclear doctrine to develop an atomic bomb.
They called on supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wields ultimate authority in Iran, to reconsider his longstanding religious edict or fatwa banning nuclear weapons.
