 good afternoon everybody good afternoon everybody may I start by apologizing for the cancellation of the press conference yesterday evening we were of course prepared to have it but in view of the evolution of the consultations it was not possible to to have it so sorry for the inconvenience for those who were on the way or already there but in any case of course it was beyond my power to influence it in any other way so I'm at your disposal. Francois Murphy from Reuters. I'm just trying to understand what what you mean so you're saying that you were still trying to reach some kind of agreement with Iran overnight and now that hasn't gone anywhere or are you still speaking to them what's the situation? The way I described this is that our consultations our negotiations have been inconclusive inconclusive meaning that we could not finish I'm not you know giving up on trying to find some understanding but in terms of what we were discussing yesterday we could not conclude on an agreement that's that's what it means. Sorry but sorry but that could be understood two ways right so inconclusive could mean we haven't gotten anywhere yet we don't know whether it's positive or negative or it means we've stopped talking and we couldn't reach an agreement so which of those two is it? I would say that we of course we concluded yesterday we are still talking but not in terms of dotting an i or crossing a t and seeing whether we can agree today on what we could not agree yesterday but the issues are still there and we are still we are still talking so I think it's I wouldn't you know get into too much elaboration of whether you know we're still talking about we are we are constantly talking we could not agree yesterday in spite of my best efforts we could not agree yesterday I made I made great efforts but we couldn't. So hi Digi I'm Stephanie Liechtenstein freelance journalist so I was wondering if you could maybe try to elaborate a bit on your negotiations with Iran there are also some theories floating that maybe Iran demanded some concessions from you in exchange for providing you access to Karaj I think the Wall Street Journal today reports that there was a connection made to the safeguards probe and I'm wondering if you could comment on that or maybe a bit give give us a bit of detail where the negotiation stands thank you I would hesitate to do that because a negotiation that does not succeed basically I don't want to to turn into an exercise of a portioning blame you know what the issues are basically we have in particular I want to restore the monitoring and verification capacities that that we need restore cameras service the equipment all of these things these are very important and I need to do this and we have a deficit there which I have identified in in my reports and then we have a number of outstanding issues in terms of safeguards matters in the course of a negotiation you try different things you approach it in a different way different combinations and it was not possible for Iran to agree with us that's what I would say hello from press tv yesterday I was listening to your press conference and remarks in Tehran and you said that you believe the talks were constructive very constructive but then when I read your statement today and you use the word the discussions were inconclusive it sounded as if you're striking a different tone almost contradictory so it just I just want you to tell me there's no contradiction the talks were constructive the talks were correct the talks were professional so that is one thing but we could not reach an agreement but then this means that you believe it is possible still we must we must reach an agreement we must do it that means you have to continue to speak with Iranian authorities always always and you have any any short dates or any time no no no of course you know I was there visiting we had this this day long negotiation and yesterday we were our talks were inconclusive so my hope is that we were we will be able to to try again at least myself I will not stop trying the issues are very very important think Iran is playing this to come to the talks the end of the week a little bit in harder that they can gain more things well you know I I wouldn't like to speculate on what they may wish to do well all I know is that they could not agree with me yesterday the reflection of this could be what is the reflection of no suspensive point for what I don't know could be what I mean I mean I'm thinking a little bit of the talks that if the if the IEA say that until now you have been talking concert but you haven't reached an agreement or you haven't come to a deal so this will have definitely a reflection on the talks next week well it's a good question for those who are going to be attending those talks. Albertotti, DPA Chairman Price Agency. Hello. In your remarks to the board you just you reiterated that the restrictions on your inspections are undermining your ability to to have a continuity of knowledge I mean your inspectors know basically what Iran is doing and they know the the the restrictions they have so my question is when when do you foresee a point when the these these current restrictions accumulate to something so serious that it makes basically no longer we're not far from there can you give us an order of magnitude weeks months days I would say we are close to that sorry can can you specify you're close to what can you finish we are close to the point I mean I am I'm saying to you we are close to the point where I would not be able to guarantee continuity of knowledge did you make any progress at all on the substance of these differences with Iran was was there any any forward movement and secondly you noted before how unusual it was that since the government of President Raisi had taken office there'd been this lack of contact you described as astonishing so this was your first chance to interact with that administration did you notice any change from the previous administration how would you characterize them in general yeah this is a good point because if I could this I could describe this as a clearly a positive element in that we needed to see each other we needed to meet to get to know each other this is why I was saying that it was astonishing that I hadn't had this opportunity now we've had it and I think this will help this will certainly help because we had they they listen to me I certainly listen to them and they have views very specific views on certain things which they have been making public and I was also able to explain how I see the process what is expected from them what I expect from them and the way in which I hope to be working with them so in this sense it was indispensable it was indispensable that we we start at progress no hello hello I'm Ahmad Samadi from Iran International TV I want to know your comment about Iranian head of atomic energy organization who claimed yesterday you admitted no deviation in Iran nuclear program what's your comment about first of all I don't have anything to admit so the you are admitted no deviation in yeah I don't have anything to admit first of all secondly this is not something we did not discuss we did not we did not discuss that yeah he told in in a joint press conference with you apparently in Farsi I did not hear that but I we did not discuss this I think they were referring to the previous IEA reports that had indicated that there were no deviations and so on and so forth but I we didn't discuss this yesterday it was not the point of the of the conversations yesterday really thank you thank you so if you allow me I would have one additional question yes please please the treatment of your inspector yeah which you also reported had to undergo some intimidating security checks so I was wondering if if this was also discussed with your counterparts in yes it was discussed and I hope I hope I hope this issues will not occur again as you remember we had had a couple of more than a couple a few episodes we addressed them by election and then they restarted so this is why we we addressed it again and I am hopeful that they understood that they have their reasons I think my reports elaborate on those but we explained that any security measure must always be compatible with the agreements between all countries and and and the agency in terms of how you deal with the with inspectors digi you say you're close to the point where you can't guarantee continuity of knowledge is that because you know something is happening at courage does that mean because you think that it's already back in operation have access but it is obvious that such a long period of time without us getting access knowing whether whether there are operational activities ongoing is something that in itself would at some point prevent me from continuing to say that I have an idea of what is going on and this is what I'm explaining I've explained this to my Iranian counterparts very clearly then if I may just to follow up more generally on the political situation at the moment you know we have talks the jcpoa talks resuming on monday we have a board meeting starting now and it seems that to some extent action against Iran on this point and others at the board meeting is being sacrificed at the altar of continuing the jcpoa talks so is that how you see it or the jcpoa talks effectively undermining your safeguards and your position relative to iran no no i would never say that i would it is it is clear and i agree with you that there is a there there are mutual influences and what may happen in one place will have an impact on on on the other but i would never i would never say that no mr. director general since you you already informed the board that you are close not to know what is going on so what you are expecting from the board shall we expect a resolution what i see no it's up to the board i i have to inform them what the situation is and at the same time as i said before i will continue to reach out to iran so we can address this issue this is indispensable we have to solve this issue quickly sorry just one more yes you say you have to solve it quickly i'm guessing there was no date that was fixed for another visit or any other talks or any other contact no but one thing that we agreed with the foreign minister and and with others that we had this absence of of of contact so i will not hesitate to reach out to them as many times as i need to you know impress on them the the need to to to help us solve this this issue uh yeah thanks i have a follow-up question on the security checks of the ia inspectors did you actually you say you're hopeful did you get any actual indication from your iranian counterparts that they are willing to uh adapt their security checks well what we told them is that they must do that because this is a legal obligation it's it's not a favor i'm asking every country signs a privileges an immunities agreement which is a legal instrument which is intended to protect and and our iranian colleagues have instituted a number of measures which are simply incompatible so we have explained to them and i hope they will they will listen to us that of course we do understand that they have an increased security alert but in doing so they must respect the the immunity of the inspectors yes hi this is geordi from f so you have been in iran with the former government and now with the new government is there a different way of having these talks is it besides the business like atmosphere is it do you feel any difference are they much tough on certain certain things or is it directly a different way of approaching i would say the way no of course the foreign minister is a distinguished career diplomat and ambassador and the others are all professionals but the positions are of course very different very different and i think there's no surprise in this they themselves say it so the the challenge for all of us is to understand each other it's a different government they have the position they want and the iran has given itself the government it wants so there's for me there's no problem i have to work with the government i have but we need to agree we need to agree sorry you're on a technical mission so how can the stance be so different i mean on technical issues remands there are certain ways to interpret them and this is why we are trying to make sure that the the new approaches in the government do not affect the way in which we work but the differences are are clear yes