A new nuclear deal with Iran will be necessary when US President-elect Joe Biden rejoins it, as he has said he will, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told Reuters on Thursday that Iran has breached the agreement in too many ways for it to simply resume.
After President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the deal in 2018, Iran began enriching uranium at levels and in amounts that exceeded the limits placed by the deal. It also has installed more advanced centrifuges banned under the deal. Biden has said the United States would rejoin the nuclear deal if Iran resumes compliance with it. Iran has said it would return to compliance if the United States lifts its sanctions.
“I cannot imagine that they are going simply to say, ‘We are back to square one’ because square one is no longer there,” Grossi told Reuters. “There is more [nuclear] material… there is more activity, there are more centrifuges, and more are being announced. So what happens with all this? This is the question for them at the political level to decide,” he said.