Iran Agreement With UN Watchdog Raises Hopes For New Nuclear Talks With US

Western powers have urged Iran to return to negotiations and said time is running out as its nuclear programme is advancing well beyond the limits set by the 2015 nuclear deal.

The UN atomic watchdog reached an agreement with Iran on Sunday to solve "the most urgent issue" between them, the overdue servicing of monitoring equipment to keep it running, raising hopes of fresh talks on a wider deal with the West. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi obtained the agreement in a last-minute trip to Tehran he called "constructive" before a meeting of his agency's 35-nation Board of Governors this week at which Western powers were threatening to seek a resolution criticising Iran for stonewalling the IAEA. A resolution risked an escalation with Tehran that could kill the prospect of resuming wider, indirect talks between Iran and the United States on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, aimed at keeping Iran at arm's length from being able to develop a nuclear weapon if it chose to. It denies ever wanting to do so. Those talks stopped in June, and Iran's hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, took office in August.