Iran to cooperate with IAEA despite inspection curbs
Rowhani said he would convey this to IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi during his planned visit to Tehran
IRAN wants to continue cooperation with the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to President Hassan Rowhani.
“We continue to be a member of the IAEA, we will continue to abide by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and we will continue to cooperate with the IAEA within this framework,” Rowhani said on Wednesday.
Rowhani said he would also convey this to IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi during his planned visit to Tehran.
Grossi is set to travel to Tehran on Saturday for technical discussions with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran on how to continue cooperation in light of the country’s announcement.
Iran had informed the IAEA on Tuesday that the country would no longer implement the voluntary transparency measures under the so-called Additional Protocol as of next Tuesday.
The unlimited access of inspectors to Iranian nuclear facilities on the basis of the IAEA Additional Protocol is part of the 2015 Vienna nuclear agreement, which was supposed to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb.
Without this access, there would be de facto nothing left of the agreement.
Rowhani said that from Iran’s point of view, the agreement had not been implemented in accordance with the treaty by the six partners in recent years.
For this reason, he said, Iran has also decided not to abide by the Additional Protocol as of February 23. “We don’t want to defy ... as we have said several times, we will fully return to our commitments as soon as the others do the same,” Rowhani said on state television.
He said the US must return to the nuclear deal and lift sanctions.
“As soon as this happens, we too will return to the templates in the deal within hours ... and if not, fine, we’ll go our own way.” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif rejected criticism from the US and Europe on Iran’s decision to scale back its cooperation and echoed Rowhani in that the agreement “simply has to be implemented” by the other parties. “Everything else is irrelevant,” he added.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also said that there had so far been only empty promises. “Now we only want to see action,” he added.
Former US president Donald Trump withdrew from the international nuclear treaty in May 2018. With tough sanctions and a policy of maximum pressure, he wanted to persuade the leadership in Tehran to negotiate an agreement with stronger and longer-term conditions.
In response, Iran has been violating key aspects of the deal, including limits on enriching uranium, the amount of uranium stored and the making of uranium metal technologies that can be used for making reactor fuel as well as nuclear warheads.
The new US administration wants to come back to the treaty if Iran adheres to its obligations again.
Tehran wants Washington to take the first step by lifting sanctions, which have led to the worst economic crisis in Iran’s history, in particular sanctions on vital oil exports.
German nuclear proliferation expert Oliver Meier warned that Iran’s plans to limit access to IAEA inspectors would damage the foundation of the 2015 nuclear agreement, by reducing the transparency of the nuclear programme.
“Suspicions about secret activities may arise, which would poison the political climate even further,” said Meier, who works at Hamburg University’s Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy.
Tehran’s latest steps were motivated by domestic politics, he told dpa.
“The government is under immense pressure,” Meier said. He warned that time for diplomacy to salvage the 2015 nuclear pact was running short as Iran’s presidential elections loom in June.