• The meeting comes as attempts to revive the country’s nuclear deal stall.
• Iran has said it is not seeking a nuclear weapon and insists it will abide by any revived deal.
• The United States reimposed biting sanctions, provoking Tehran into stepping back from its nuclear commitments.

As efforts to resurrect Iran’s nuclear deal stall, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said Monday that he had met with the head of the country’s atomic energy agency.

Efforts to salvage a shattered 2015 agreement — which offered an easing of international sanctions in exchange for a drastic reduction in Iran’s nuclear activities — have floundered since then-President Donald Trump withdrew America from it in 2018.

The US reimposed harsh sanctions, provoking Tehran to back down from its nuclear commitments, significantly increasing its stock of enriched uranium, and turning off monitoring cameras operated by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

But, after months of squabbles, the two sides finally met in Vienna.

“Dialogue with Iran has resumed on clarification of outstanding safeguards issues,” Rafael Grossi tweeted on Monday.

He said he met with Mohammad Eslami, the IAEA’s vice president, on the sidelines of the organization’s annual meeting, and posted a photo of the two shaking hands.

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The UN watchdog has pressed Iran to provide answers about the presence of nuclear material at three undeclared sites, and this key sticking point resulted in a resolution criticising Iran being passed at the IAEA’s board of governors meeting in June.

Last week, Eslami told state television that he planned to meet with Grossi and that he hoped to “put an end… to the false accusations about certain (nuclear) sites resulting from political pressure and psychological operations exerted against Iran.”

Iran has repeatedly stated that it wants the IAEA to abandon its interest in the three sites, a position that the nuclear watchdog regards as untrustworthy.

In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last Wednesday, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi reiterated his country’s long-held position that it is not seeking nuclear weapons and demanded US guarantees that any revived nuclear deal would be adhered to.

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