IAEA: top official’s resignation won’t change Iran policy

PanARMENIAN.Net - The UN nuclear watchdog said on Sunday, April 21 that the resignation of one of its top officials who have been leading talks with Iran would not change its policy in dealing with Tehran over its disputed atomic program, Reuters reported.

The message of continuity came two days after diplomats said that Rafael Grossi would quit as assistant director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a post which made him one of the UN agency's most influential people.

Some envoys said the Argentine diplomat's sudden resignation announcement was a possible indication of personal or other differences among the leadership of the Vienna-based IAEA.

Other officials, however, said they had seen no sign of any such internal friction in the organization's senior management.

Grossi is expected to leave his post in the early summer to become Argentina's envoy to the IAEA, a diplomatic source told Reuters on Friday. The South American country is a member of the UN agency's 35-nation governing board.

The IAEA confirmed on Sunday that Grossi, who also holds the position as chief of cabinet of IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano, had handed in his resignation and that the "timing of his departure will be defined very soon."

Spokeswoman Gill Tudor said that Amano "confirms this departure will not change the positions and policies of the agency, including the on-going negotiations with Iran."