International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi is picturd before a closed meeting with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Oct. 19, 2021. (Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images)

The UN watchdog chief has said that the US and Iran have entered a ‘decisive’ period to revive nuclear accord or risk failure.

Iran PressIran news: The next few weeks will be “decisive” in determining whether the United States and Iran can return to indirect negotiations and resume efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between them, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi said Wednesday.

Iran has extended an invitation for the IAEA director-general to meet with its political leaders in Tehran in the coming days, Grossi said in an interview with The Washington Post. 

All other parties to the accord — Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, with the European Union playing a coordinating role — as well as the United States, have confirmed to him that if the monitoring regime is not fully restored, “it would be extremely difficult to have an agreement of this type,” Grossi said.

What amounts to a deadline for returning to the talks is tied to a meeting of the IAEA board of governors scheduled for mid-November. The European parties have repeatedly threatened to issue a condemnation of Iran and consider reimposing sanctions if it does not comply with verification commitments.

This comes as the Biden administration last week indicated a shift in its posture toward the delayed resumption of the talks, from warning that the timeline was not infinite to saying it was prepared to consider what Secretary of State Antony Blinken called “other options if Iran does not change its course.”

On the other side, Iran’s nuclear chief has advised the IAEA not to be duped by false reports concocted by a Europe-based terrorist group against Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.

“The Agency should not play into the hands of terrorist groups,” head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami said in an interview with Sputnik News last month.

Eslami made the remarks when asked to comment on the IAEA chief’s call on Iran to explain the presence of uranium particles at several undeclared sites.

He explained that the terrorist group hoodwinks the IAEA by showing fabricated papers, fake satellite images and false evidence as part of its threadbare tactics, which have proved invalid.

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