UN nuclear watchdog chief says he may head to Iran soon as Trump return looms

Reuters: ROME/PARIS (Reuters) - U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday he might head to Iran in the coming days to discuss its disputed atomic programme and that he expected to work cooperatively with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

Grossi had previously said he hoped to go to Tehran ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. vote as he seeks to resolve several long-standing issues that have dogged relations between Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency and Western powers.

"We are already talking to colleagues in Iran for my next visit maybe in a few days. We still have to confirm the time but this will be done," he told a news conference in Rome after a nuclear energy event.

Without confirming it, Iranian officials have welcomed a visit from Grossi, saying Tehran is ready to cooperate with the IAEA to resolve outstanding issues, without giving details.

Issues at stake include Tehran's barring of uranium-enrichment experts from IAEA inspection teams in the country and its failure for years to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites.

Iran has also stepped up nuclear activity since 2019, after then-President Trump abandoned a 2015 deal Iran reached with world powers under which it curbed enrichment - seen by the West as a disguised effort to develop nuclear weapons capability - and restored tough U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Tehran is now enriching uranium to up to 60% fissile purity, close to the roughly 90% required for an atom bomb. It has enough higher-enriched uranium to produce about four nuclear bombs, if refined further, according to an IAEA yardstick.

Iran has long denied any nuclear bomb ambitions, saying it is enriching uranium for civilian energy uses only.

How Trump decides to handle Iran in his second White House term remains unclear. At an election rally on Tuesday, he said he wanted Iran to be a "very successful country" but that it "can't have nuclear weapons".