Iran’s foreign minister says he will meet IAEA director on Monday

DUBAI, Feb 16 (Reuters) – Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said he will meet with the director of the UN nuclear watchdog on Monday, the day before a second round of U.S.-Iran nuclear talks in Geneva.

Iran and the U.S. renewed negotiations earlier this month to tackle their decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme and avert a new military confrontation as U.S. warships, including a second aircraft carrier, are deploying to the region.

“I am in Geneva with real ideas to achieve a fair and equitable deal. What is not on the table: submission before threats,” Araqchi said on X.

While Washington has sought to expand the scope of talks to non-nuclear issues like Iran’s missile stockpile, Tehran says it is only willing to discuss curbs on its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief and won’t accept zero uranium enrichment.

Prior to the U.S. joining Israel in striking Iranian nuclear sites in June, Iran-U.S. nuclear talks had stalled over Washington’s demand that Tehran forgoes enrichment on its soil, which the U.S. views as a pathway to an Iranian nuclear weapon.

Iran says its nuclear programme is solely for civilian purposes and is ready to assuage concerns regarding nuclear weapons by “building trust that enrichment is and will stay for peaceful purposes.”

Araqchi said he will meet International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi on Monday accompanied by nuclear experts “for deep technical discussions.”

The IAEA has been calling on Iran for months to say what happened to its stockpile of 440 kg of highly enriched uranium following Israeli-U.S. strikes and let inspections fully resume, including in three key sites that were bombed in June: Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan.

While Iran allowed the UN nuclear watchdog to inspect declared nuclear facilities that were not targeted last June, it says that the IAEA must clarify its stance regarding U.S. and Israeli strikes and adds that the bombed sites are unsafe for inspections.

The IAEA and Iran announced an agreement in September in Cairo that was supposed to pave the way towards full inspections and verification, but Tehran scrapped the agreement after Western powers reinstated UN sanctions on Iran.

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Toby Chopra)