video duration 02 minutes 13 seconds
The United States, France, Germany and Britain welcomed in a joint statement Friday the decision by the board of directors of the International Atomic Energy Agency ordering Iran to cooperate urgently with the agency’s investigation into the traces of uranium found in three secret sites. On the other hand, Tehran has confirmed that the agency is aware of its nuclear activities.
The Quartet statement stressed that the IAEA’s adoption of this decision came in response to Iran’s insufficient cooperation with it on issues related to its legal obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty Safeguards Agreement. of nuclear weapons.
He added that the resolution sends a “clear message” to Iran which should urge it to fulfill its obligations in the nuclear dossier “urgently”.
This is the second resolution adopted this year, following a resolution last June that Russia and China voted against.
US Ambassador Laura Holgate said Iran should know that if it fails to cooperate to resolve these issues, the council will need to take further action.
Iranian condemnation
Instead, Iran denounced the decision, calling it political, saying it would have no results. Iranian envoy to the IAEA, Mohsen Naziri, said that the political objectives of the authors of this anti-Iranian resolution will not be achieved, but could jeopardize constructive relations between Tehran and the agency.
For his part, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran confirmed today, Friday, that the International Atomic Energy Agency is aware of all of Tehran’s activities.
The semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) quoted Mohammad Eslami as saying that Iran has not done and will not do anything that the agency does not know about.
He added: “All our activities are carried out within the regulations and there are no problems with the guarantees which are the criterion for our cooperation with the agency.”
Resolving so-called “safeguard” investigations is crucial for the UN agency, which seeks to ensure that parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty do not covertly divert nuclear material to make weapons.
Last June, Iran removed additional monitoring equipment from the International Atomic Energy Agency, including surveillance cameras installed under the 2015 deal.
In addition to the stalling of talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency, negotiations between the major powers and Tehran to revive the nuclear deal signed in 2015 have reached a dead end.
After the United States withdrew from the deal under President Donald Trump in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran, the latter responded by phasing out most of its pledges.
Joe Biden’s arrival at the White House allowed the process to resume and revived hopes of reaching an agreement last August, but dialogue has stalled since then.
