BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 30. The Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is clearly superseded at this
point, said Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Trend reports.
“2025 almost is ten years after that agreement was signed. So,
Iran has now much faster, more efficient, more performing
centrifuges. Iran has more facilities producing the parts of those.
It’s developing, and constructing new sites where nuclear
activities are taking place. So, that agreement is clearly
superseded at this point,” he said in an interview with Amanpour
and Company.
Grossi noted that today Iran does not have nuclear weapons.
“Iran is accumulating vast amounts of highly enriched uranium,
and this is something that, of course, draws our attention because
no other country, without nuclear weapons, is enriching at these
high levels. We are in a trajectory that is not good. We have to
persuade Iran to come back to full cooperation with us. But, of
course, we are not in a scenario where we have the weapons in that
country,” he added.
A comprehensive plan for joint action on Iran’s nuclear program
was implemented between Iran and the P5+1 group (US, Russia, China,
UK, France, and Germany) in January 2016. The US announced in May
2018 that it was withdrawing from this plan and in November of the
same year imposed sanctions on Iran. Iran announced in 2020 that
there would be no restrictions on Iran in the nuclear deal.
Meanwhile, at the end of 2020, the Iranian Parliament, referring
to the imposition of sanctions against Iran, decided to implement
the Nuclear Strategic Plan to lift the sanctions. According to the
decision of the Iranian parliament, Iran suspended the
implementation of additional steps and Additional Protocol
stipulated by the nuclear agreement on February 23. At the same
time, the IAEA control mechanism was reduced by 20-30 percent.
The media, quoting the IAEA, reported in February that Iran had
increased its stockpile of enriched uranium 27 times more than
stipulated in the comprehensive joint action plan. Since the IAEA
report of September 4, 2023, the amount of uranium enriched by 60
percent in Iran has increased by 6.7 kilograms to about 128
kilograms.