Iran’s mission to Vienna-based organizations called on the international community, including the International Atomic Energy Agency and its member states, to show wisdom in addressing Iran’s nuclear issues in a diligent manner, so as to avoid distorting the bigger picture on Tehran’s cooperation with the global watchdog.
“The current extensive level of [Iran’s] cooperation with the agency has not been achieved easily, just to be diminished by short-sighted political interests,” the mission underlined in an explanatory note about the IAEA director general’s latest report to the Board of Governors.
The note also emphasized that the Islamic Republic has so far rendered its full cooperation to the agency under the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement required by the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
“It has to be re-emphasized that all Iran’s nuclear material and activities have been completely declared and verified by the agency,” it read.
In its most recent report on Iran, Director General Rafael Grossi has stated that outstanding issues related to uranium particles allegedly found at three undeclared sites need to be resolved for the agency to be in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful.
The UN mission said in the note that such a statement undermines impartiality of the agency and is far from the professional approach needed to be taken by the global organization.
Iran has dismissed the allegations, saying the mere presence of a few uranium particles at the claimed locations could not be considered presence of nuclear material or contaminated equipment.
“It should be noted that the agency has not provided Iran with any authentic supporting documents for its claim,” the mission said.
Besides, intensive investigations have shown no proof of nuclear activity or storage at the locations, so there is no technical explanation concerning the origin of reported particles, according to the note.
“The agency should not disregard the possibility of involvement of Iran’s staunch enemies in providing false and fabricated information and committing various sabotage acts,” it read.
The UN office also underlined that while all Iran’s nuclear material and activities have been under the IAEA’s strict verification and monitoring activities, coupled with Iran’s cooperation and voluntary transparency measures, questioning the peaceful nature of Iranian nuclear program has no justification.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran strongly expects that the agency conduct its reporting on verification activities in Iran based on the principals of impartiality, professionalism and objectivity.”
Out of CSA Scope
Iran’s UN office also highlighted in the explanatory note that verification activities related to the 2015 nuclear deal are not under the scope of the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement, therefore not essential to providing assurances about the peaceful nature of the country’s nuclear program.
Under the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran agreed to curbs on its nuclear activity and extra strict monitoring and verification in return for sanctions relief.
The United States, however, quit the deal in 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions that prompted Tehran to react by scaling down its commitments.
Iran’s countermeasures included ceasing all transparency measures under the JCPOA as per a parliamentary law.
“Therefore, linking the assurances of the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program and resolution of the alleged issues to such information are baseless and unacceptable,” the note said.
As such, the IAEA demand for increase of knowledge of Iran’s nuclear-related activities “has no legal basis and cannot be accepted,” as any such measure is only voluntary and out of the scope of the CSA, it explained.
The same is true about the agency’s request to access data recorded by the cameras between February 2021 and June 2022, and those recorded since 2-3 May 2023, as well as implementation of modified Code 3.1 which has been suspended as a measure against US violation of the JCPOA, the mission said.
Source : Financial Tribune
