TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has an important responsibility concerning the Iran nuclear deal, stressing that Iran will continue its ties with the UN agency.

During a meeting with the visiting Director-General of the IAEA Rafael Mariano Grossi on Wednesday, Rouhani said that in addition to its technical responsibilities, the IAEA has an important responsibility to ensure that the Iran nuclear agreement is maintained.

Tehran attaches great importance to its relations with the IAEA, Rouhani said and stressed that Iran will continue its cooperation with the UN agency.

“Iran, like before, is ready to cooperate with the IAEA,” Rouhani said.

Rouhani pointed to IAEA’s detailed reports about Iran’s implementation of Iran nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), during the cooperation of seven countries involved in nuclear talks and said, “JCPOA was a very important agreement for Iran and P5+1 group, which created peace and security both in the region and world.”

The IAEA chief, for his part, expressed satisfaction with an agreement reached with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran during the ongoing visit to Tehran and emphasized on deepening and expanding cooperation between the two sides.

Grossi described the JCPOA as a great achievement and said the IAEA has an important task to maintain it.

He expressed hope that all technical issues and questions will be resolved through further cooperation between Tehran and the IAEA.

Grossi arrived in Tehran on Monday and held separate meetings with the head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi, and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday.

Joint statement 

The meeting between Rouhani and Grossi came hours after the IAEA and Iran in a joint statement said they agreed to further reinforce their cooperation to facilitate the full implementation of Iran’s Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (CSA).

The statement released by the IAEA’s official website, said that the UN agency and Tehran agreed to further reinforce their cooperation and enhance mutual trust to facilitate the full implementation of Iran’s Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement and the Additional Protocol (AP) thereto, which is provisionally applied by Iran since 16 January 2016.

After intensive bilateral consultations, Iran and the IAEA reached an agreement on the resolution of the safeguards implementation issues specified by the IAEA, in good faith, the statement read.

In this regard, Iran is voluntarily providing the IAEA with access to the two locations specified by the IAEA and facilitating the IAEA verification activities to resolve these issues, it said.

It added that dates for the IAEA access and the verification activities have been agreed.

The joint statement added that the IAEA verification activities will proceed in accordance with the CSA and the AP, and the IAEA’s standard verification practice as implemented for all states with CSAs and APs on equal basis and without discrimination.

“In the context of resolution GOV/2015/72 adopted by the Board of Governors on 15 December 2015, the IAEA and Iran recognize that these safeguards implementation issues are exclusively related to nuclear material and activities subject to safeguards under the CSA and the AP.”

In this present context, said the statement, “based on analysis of available information to the IAEA, the IAEA does not have further questions to Iran and further requests for access to locations other than those declared by Iran under its CSA and AP.”

It also said, “Both sides recognize the independence, impartiality and professionalism of the IAEA continue to be essential in the fulfilment of its verification activities.”

“The IAEA will continue to take into consideration Iran’s security concerns, by protecting all safeguards confidential information in accordance with the IAEA’s Statute, the relevant provisions of the CSA and the AP, and the established IAEA confidentiality regime, standards and procedures,” the statement read.