NEW DEAL NEEDED TO REVIVE IRAN NUKE PACT: IAEA CHIEF

Reviving Iran’s nuclear deal under US President-elect Joe Biden would require striking a new agreement setting out how Iran’s breaches should be reversed, UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Mariano Grossi told Francois Murphy of Reuters.

Biden, who takes office on Jan. 20, has said the US will rejoin the deal “if Iran resumes strict compliance” with the agreement that imposed strict curbs on its nuclear activities in return for the lifting of sanctions. After President Donald Trump quit the deal and reimposed US sanctions, Iran responded by breaching many of the deal’s restrictions. Tehran says it could quickly reverse those steps if Washington first lifts its sanctions.

In an interview with Reuters, Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency that polices Iran’s compliance, said there had been too many breaches for the agreement to simply snap back into place.

“I cannot imagine that they are going simply to say, ‘We are back to square one’ because square one is no longer there,” Grossi said at IAEA headquarters.

“It is clear that there will have to be a protocol or an agreement or an understanding or some ancillary document which will stipulate clearly what we do,” he said. “There is more (nuclear) material, ... there is more activity, there are more centrifuges, and more are being announced. So what happens with all this? This is the question for them at the political level to decide.”

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