IAEA chief Rafael Grossi arrives in Iran for talks on nuclear programme

Rafael Grossi, the chief of International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Iran’s capital Tehran on Wednesday (November 13) for key talks on the country’s nuclear programme.

He was greeted at the airport by Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran or AEOI.

Grossi is scheduled to meet with Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), as well as Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran on Thursday (November 14). Araghchi was the chief negotiator in the nuclear talks between Tehran and the major powers that led to the 2015 agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The timing of the visit is rather important.

The Trump threat to Iran

Grossi’s trip comes just one week after Donald Trump– a noted hawk on Iran– won the US presidential election.

It was Trump who had, in his first term, unilaterally withdrawn the US from the nuclear deal and reimposed heavy sanctions on Iran.

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His return to the White House have boosted fears of rising tensions between Iran and the US.

Israel-Iran tensions

The visit also comes against the backdrop of tit-for-tat attacks by Iran and its sworn enemy, Israel.

Iran has threatened to hit back at Israel for its latest missile strikes. Amid these threats, some lawmakers in the country have called on the Islamic Republic’s government to revise its nuclear doctrine to pursue nuclear weapons.

While Iran does not have any nuclear weapons at this this moment in time, it does have plenty of nuclear materials that could be used eventually to make a weapon.

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Israel, too, has recently warned that Iran was “more exposed than ever to strikes on its nuclear facilities”.

With President Masoud Pezeshkian, a moderate, in power in Iran, there is chance of progress during talks. Scope for optimism, however, is limited since the final decision-maker in the country is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei– not a moderate.

With inputs from agencies