Iran said the explosion had been a sabotage attempt by Israel.
The Natanz uranium enrichment facility buildings are pictured some 200 miles (322 km) south of the capital Tehran, Iran, on March 30, 2005. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Asked by AFP to confirm the trip, an IAEA spokesman said: “As part of the Agency’s implementation of its safeguards activities in Iran, Deputy Director General Aparo regularly travels to Iran.”
A delicate time
Massimo Aparo’s visit will come at a delicate time after a temporary agreement covering inspections at Iranian nuclear facilities expired last week.
In late February, Iran limited the IAEA’s access to nuclear sites it has been monitoring as part of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi from Argentina, addresses the media during a news conference behind plexiglass shields regarding the agency s monitoring of Iran s nuclear energy program at the International Center in Vienna, Austria, June 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Lisa Leutner)
The UN nuclear watchdog said Friday it had received no reply from Tehran over the possible extension of a temporary agreement covering inspections at Iranian nuclear facilities which expired on Thursday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement its director Rafael Grossi had written to Tehran about the matter on 17 June but that “Iran had not replied to his letter or indicated whether it intends to maintain the current arrangement.”
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Deputy Secretary General and Political Director of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Enrique Mora, addresses the media as he leaves the Grand Hotel Wien where closed-door nuclear talks with Iran took place in Vienna, Austria, May 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Lisa Leutner)
VIENNA (AP) World powers met Wednesday for a new round of high-level talks on bringing the United States back into the nuclear deal with Iran amid growing hopes that an agreement might soon be within reach.
Enrique Mora, the European Union official who chaired the talks between Russia, China, Germany, France, Britain and Iran told reporters “we have made substantial progress” though there were “still things to be worked out.”
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Centrifuge machines in the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, November 5, 2019. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP)
A former head of the Mossad spy agency said Monday that he believes Israel’s political establishment wants Sunday’s sabotage attack that reportedly caused massive damage to an Iranian nuclear facility attributed to Israel.
“Apparently all those who are interested in this issue in the State of Israel, at the leadership-political level, are interested in things being attributed to Israel,” Efraim Halevy, who served as the country’s top spy in 1998-2002, told the Ynet news site.
“Therefore, this action is presumably the action of those being pointed to.”