Amano Arrives in Tehran for Meeting with Hassan Rouhani

The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, is visiting Tehran on a "ceremonial" trip on Monday, January 28, to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. According to ISNA news agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, stated on Sunday that Amano was "interested" in visiting Iran, "because the JCPOA is a significant event for the IAEA." He mentioned that the purpose of this visit is to "strengthen and develop relations between Iran and the Agency" and that the Islamic Republic's cooperation with the IAEA will continue "within the framework of previous regulations and the Additional Protocol." Salehi also noted that the Agency should not be viewed "solely from the perspective of inspections; this is part of the Agency's work. The Agency is active in providing services to its members, and with the implementation of the JCPOA, our cooperation in utilizing the Agency's services will certainly expand significantly." Early on Sunday, Yukiya Amano announced in a statement that laid the groundwork for the lifting of Tehran's nuclear sanctions that Iran has taken all necessary preliminary steps to begin implementing the JCPOA and emphasized that "from today, relations between Iran and the Agency have entered a new phase." Amano later issued a statement confirming that he would travel to Tehran on Sunday to meet with President Rouhani and his deputy, Ali Akbar Salehi. He noted that this trip is aimed at consulting on how to monitor and verify Iran's nuclear commitments under the JCPOA. "There will be no visits involved." Meanwhile, Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization, mentioned on Sunday that Amano would arrive in Tehran on Sunday night, stating that this visit was at Iran's invitation and that Amano is not scheduled to "visit any sites" during this meeting. Regarding Amano's trip to Tehran, President Rouhani said in his press conference on Sunday: "We are working with Mr. Amano, of course, we have worked with him before. As you know, we are a member of the NPT... We voluntarily implemented the Additional Protocol for a while, and from today onward, we will also implement it voluntarily." Rouhani emphasized that the conditions of Iran's nuclear program have "changed" and that the Islamic Republic will cooperate with "various countries" in the field of nuclear technology. He expressed hope that Iran could reach an agreement with the Agency "sooner than the eight-year period specified in the Vienna nuclear agreement, which assures them that all nuclear activities in Iran, whether declared or undeclared, are peaceful." Under the Vienna nuclear agreement, Iran has agreed to voluntarily implement the Additional Protocol of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) for eight years, after which the Iranian government will submit a bill for the permanent implementation of this protocol to the parliament. The IAEA had announced in October that Iran had informed the agency that it would begin the "temporary" implementation of the Additional Protocol "from the day the nuclear agreement is implemented." According to the Additional Protocol, the IAEA will have extraordinary access to Iran's nuclear facilities. Iran had previously implemented the Additional Protocol for a period during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami but has so far refrained from ratifying it.