In his weekly press conference Monday, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said he had not heard “news of plans for a visit” by Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

This followed reports that Grossi had requested a meeting with Mohammad Eslami, the new head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) before the September 20-24 meeting of the IAEA annual general conference in Vienna.

Khatibzadeh said he was unsure if Grossi planned to visit Iran, advised reporters to enquiry at the IAEA, and called Iran’s relations with the agency "technical and respectful…[based on] deep mutual understanding.” The spokesman expressed hope that “others do not interfere with this understanding.”

The IAEA monitors Iran’s nuclear program although Tehran earlier this year reduced the agency’s access. Talks have been underway in Vienna since April between Iran and world powers to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement – the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – which the US left in 2018 as it imposed ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions on Iran. The JCPOA gave the IAEA an enhanced role in monitoring Tehran’s atomic sites.

Laurence Norman, the Wall Street Journal Brussels correspondent, tweeted Monday that he had “heard it was a no from Iran" on a request from Grossi to visit for monitoring talks. Laurence predicted a clash between IAEA and Iran, with consequences – he claimed – for the JCPOA.

In a remark probably directed at the US and perhaps European states, Khatibzadeh warned Monday against "political misuse of the IAEA technical platform," which he said would draw "a different response from Tehran." While the agency’s primary role is technical monitoring, its board of governors is made up of state representatives, and it was the board that in 2006 first referred Iran to the United Nations Security Council over its nuclear program.

'Maximum failure'

Khatibzadeh reiterated, following President Ebrahim Raisi’s [Raeesi] television interview on Saturday, that Iran was willing to resume talks in Vienna if they were “goal oriented.” For the US to continue “following [former US president Donald] Trump's mentality" – in continuing ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions – would lead only to “maximum failure.” Khatibzadeh said Iran expected Washington to comply with its JCPOA commitments.

Rob Malley, the US Special Envoy for Iran, said Friday that Washington knew Iran was going through a government transition but that the US could not "wait forever" for Tehran to resume talks, which were suspended in June for the Iranian presidential election.

Some analysts in Europe have suggested Iran may be delaying in order to establish new ‘facts on the ground’ in its nuclear program, so gaining a more favorable outcome in complex talks over which US sanctions and which parts of the Iranian nuclear program contravene the JCPOA. Some media and pundits in Iran have detected a lack of urgency in the Raisi administration.

In an article on September 2, the reformist Etemad newspaper noted it was 70 days since the last round of talks in Vienna, which include the remaining JCPOA signatories and the US indirectly. Many of those who supported Raisi in the June election are long-time opponents of the JCPOA, although Raisi has said he would welcome the deal’s revival if this means lifting US sanctions.