As momentum grows for the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal, Iran’s top diplomat on Thursday demanded that the UN nuclear watchdog abandon the matter of three undeclared sites.
The International Atomic Energy Agency needs Tehran’s cooperation to dispel doubts about past activities at three unreported locations, and the United States is insistent about this.
The board of governors of the IAEA adopted a resolution denouncing Iran in June for failing to effectively respond to the earlier finding of traces of enriched uranium at three locations that Tehran had not acknowledged as having hosted nuclear operations.
“We are very serious about safeguard issues, and do not want to allow some of the IAEA’s baseless accusations to remain,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, state news agency IRNA reported.
According to an Iranian diplomat reported by IRNA, the incident is “political in character, and should not be used as a pretext to punish Iran,” poisoning relations between the IAEA and the Islamic Republic.
The remarks follow an American response to Iranian suggestions for restoring the historic accord that former president Donald Trump had criticised.
Also Read: US lawmaker on armed services committee arrives in Taiwan, defying pressure from Beijing
“We are in the process of examining the response of the Americans,” Amir-Abdollahian said.
Just a few weeks after it appeared that the agreement was dead, the European Union put forth on August 8 what it called a final text to revive it. Under this text, Iran would receive relief from sanctions and be allowed to sell its oil once more in exchange for strict limitations on its nuclear programme.
The United States officially responded to Iran’s last week’s suggested modifications on Wednesday, a day after Tehran accused its longtime foe of obstruction.
In 2015, Iran and six major world powers—Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States—agreed to a deal that would lift sanctions in exchange for limits on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme.
(with inputs from agencies)