Iran rejects military sites inspection under nuclear deal

A senior military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader said on Sunday that inspecting Iranian military sites under the pretext of the international nuclear deal is “impossible”, TV reports said on Monday.

The nuclear agreement signed between Iran and world’s six major powers two years ago allows no inspection of Iran’s military sites, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi said.

He slammed recent comments made by Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the United Nations, in her visit to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters in Vienna, as an attempt by Washington to undermine the nuclear agreement.

On Friday, Haley said Iran has publicly declared that they will not allow access to military sites. But the international agreement in 2015 makes no distinction between military and non-military sites, said Haley after she returned from Vienna.

Firouzabadi said Haley is the U.S. agent to hatch a “new plot and she is lying”.

On Sunday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bhram Qasemi, also emphasized the IAEA inspections in Iran would be carried out only within the framework of the country’s policies.

After years of tension with the West, Iran struck a deal with the five world powers of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States in July 2015 on a comprehensive deal, under which Iran agreed to limit its uraniumenrichment activities in return for the lifting of western and international sanctions. The IAEA is responsible for the verification of Iran’s compliance with the agreement through regular access to all Iranian nuclear facilities.

The international agreement is facing serious threats of collapse as tensions mounted between Washington and Tehran recently. –IANS