US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday met with Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi on Iran, according to US State Department.
State Department’s Spokesman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement, the two leaders discussed the IAEA’s monitoring work in Iran, nuclear security, and the importance of the IAEA to US security interests.
Pompeo and Grossi pledged to stay in close contact on nuclear issues of concern, the statement added.
The meeting came days after Washington’s sanctions against the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and its head while renewing waivers allowing foreign companies to continue work at Iranian nuclear sites.
A Democratic-led US House of Representatives committee said that it had reached an agreement with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to testify at a public hearing on Iran and Iraq policy, after threatening a subpoena over previous refusals to appear.
Earlier, Pompeo “expressed his outrage at the continued assaults by Iran’s armed groups against US facilities in Iraq, including Sunday’s rocket attacks against our Embassy, which resulted in one injury,”
Since the US assassinated Iran’s Quds Force leader General Qasem Suleimani and Iraqi military figure Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis earlier this month in Baghdad, Iraq has become the battleground for both Iran and the US. Iran was prompted to fire ballistic missiles at an Iraqi base where US troops are stationed.
The foreign affairs panel had tried to schedule at least two public hearings with Pompeo, including one that would have taken place on Wednesday, Jan. 29, but he had declined to appear.