UN nuclear watchdog chief welcomes Iran-US peace deal, says technical work starts now

GENEVA, June 18 - The U.N. nuclear watchdog on Thursday welcomed the interim peace deal signed by Washington and Iran, saying it would now be involved in technical discussions to implement the agreement.

"It is good that the memorandum is there. Now the technical work starts," Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters in Geneva.

"Now it is for us to sit down with our American and Iranian colleagues and start formulating concrete steps that will have to be taken."

The 14-point agreement signed on Wednesday evening extends a ceasefire announced in April by another 60 days, including in Lebanon, to allow the two sides to negotiate a final truce.

Both Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian have digitally signed the memorandum in English and Farsi, U.S. and Iran officials said, with Iran's foreign ministry saying the agreement was already in effect as of Wednesday.

“The fact that they are mentioning that this will be under the supervision and control of the IAEA is very important, because in our conversation, what we are going to be doing is defining what we need to see, what we need to access,” Grossi said.

He said the magnitude of the IAEA's work will be determined by the final provisions of the agreement, and that technical talks would seek to break down the general principles.

In February Iran and the U.S. failed to reach a breakthrough in talks in Geneva aimed at resolving their longstanding nuclear dispute, though the Omani mediator said progress had been made, and technical talks were due to take place the following week with the IAEA in Vienna. However 48 hours later the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran which sparked a regional war.

Grossi cautioned against being frustrated by previous failures.

“We have a chance and we need to seize it,” he said. REUTERS