Iran Slams IAEA for Heeding Unfounded Claims
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for its assertions regarding Iran’s nuclear activities, saying the organization should not blindly accept any unfounded claim raised against the Islamic Republic.
“As Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi has responded to the IAEA’s recent statements and claims in detail, this is a technical matter,” Mousavi told reporters during a video press conference on Wednesday.
“We have the highest and most technical cooperation with the IAEA, and Iran is not supposed to answer any unfounded claim or question raised by the agency,” he added.
“The framework of Iran's cooperation with the agency is clear and it should preserve its credibility and (refrain from) following up on any allegation made by any absurd individual or regime,” the spokesman went on to say.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi last week repeated his past claim that Iran has been barring the agency’s access to two out of three locations about which “the agency has identified a number of questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities.”
“The agency sought access to two of the locations. Iran has not provided access to these locations and has not engaged in substantive discussions to clarify the Agency’s questions,” he added.
Iran argues that the IAEA’s concerns about those sites, which have nothing to do with Iran’s nuclear program, emanate from false reports provided to the nuclear agency by Israeli spy agencies, as a result of which the country is under no obligation to address those concerns.
On March 4, Iran’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna said the Islamic Republic was preventing a new dangerous precedent in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) whose purpose is to lend authenticity to fake reports from espionage services.
“Unfortunately, the US and the Israeli regime are once again trying to obstruct the active and constructive relations and cooperation between the IAEA and Iran by exerting pressure on the agency to force it to abandon its constitutional duties,” Kazem Gharibabadi said.
He further stated that Iran is preventing a dangerous and unprincipled precedent from being made in the IAEA which is aimed at giving authenticity to fake reports of espionage agencies.
Gharibabadi made it clear that any request from the IAEA for additional verification or access on the basis of fake reports of the spy agencies, including the Zionist regime’s spy services, not only will be in contradiction to the IAEA’s founding documents and to the verification system, but also do not commit Iran to agreeing to those requests.
The IAEA has not specified the origin of the allegation, but since April 2018, the US and Israel have been busy making a fuss about unsubstantiated Israeli-sourced allegations about undeclared nuclear activity by Tehran.
The IAEA is tasked with monitoring the technical implementation of a 2015 nuclear deal signed between Iran and six major world powers — the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany.
The US unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in May 2018.