IAEA chief calls on Iran to cooperate on nuclear facility inspections

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, has called on Iran to take swift and concrete steps to improve the monitoring of its nuclear programme.

"I want results and I want them soon," Grossi said at Vienna airport on Tuesday evening after returning from two days of talks with Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and nuclear chief Mohammed Eslami in Iran. However, no concrete steps were agreed during Grossi's visit.

The IAEA and Iran reached an agreement in principle in March last year on inspections of nuclear facilities and the clarification of past nuclear activities that were kept secret.

But Tehran withdrew permission for some of the most experienced IAEA inspectors to work in Iran in September. The IAEA also was not authorized to access data from some of its monitoring devices.

"The present state is completely unsatisfactory for me," Grossi said in Vienna. He confirmed that Tehran is still insisting on linking cooperation with nuclear inspectors on the lifting of economic sanctions imposed by the West. Grossi said there were many political issues involved.