The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency accused Iran on Monday of failing to answer questions about the discovery of uranium particles at undeclared nuclear sites in the country.
Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has for years been trying to get Iran to provide answers about the uranium particles found at three sites, on the chance that they were linked to Iran’s nuclear program.
But Grossi said in Vienna, "My expectations about this process, of course, were not met.”
“It's very clear I was expecting this 'focus process,' as I called it at that time, to allow us to make clear progress towards clarification of all these issues,” he said. “And this has not happened.”
Grossi said Tehran “has reiterated its will to engage and to cooperate and to provide answers. But they haven't done that so far. So I hope this may change, but as we speak, we haven't had any concrete progress on any of the issues."
"The lack of progress in clarifying the agency's questions concerning the correctness and completeness of Iran's safeguards declarations seriously affects the ability of the agency to provide assurance of the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program," Grossi said.
There was no immediate comment from the Iranian government.
The inspections issue is separate from the ongoing talks about the United States rejoining the 2015 international pact to restrain Iran’s nuclear program. Then-U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact in 2018. Iran has maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
