Iran says IAEA chief to visit Iran "soon"

Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will make an official visit to the capital Tehran soon, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh announced on Monday.

The Iranian spokesman said that Iran is waiting for Grossi to respond to its invitation.

Technical relations between Iran and the IAEA are going in a good direction, he said, adding that "Grossi has very close relations with both our atomic energy organization and our friends at the Iranian embassy in Vienna."

On his next trip, Grossi will meet the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) as well as Iran's foreign minister, said Khatibzadeh.

During a meeting between Mohammad Eslami, vice president and the head of the AEOI, and Grossi in Tehran in September, IAEA's inspectors were permitted to service the identified monitoring equipment, installed in Iran's nuclear facilities, and replace their storage media which would be kept in seals in Iran.

On February 23, Iran stopped the implementation of voluntary measures envisaged in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, in a reaction to the former US President Donald Trump's unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA and re-imposition of sanctions against Iran.

Iran and the remaining parties to the JCPOA are set to meet in the Austrian capital of Vienna on November 29 to resume the negotiations which were paused in June due to Iran's presidential election and the subsequent alteration in the administration. (ANI/Xinhua)

( With inputs from ANI )