Iran has no obligation to grant the UN’s nuclear watchdog access to sites in the country when it deems that requests are based on “fabricated information”, Tehran’s UN ambassador in Vienna said Wednesday.
“Intelligence services’ fabricated information… creates no obligation for Iran to consider such requests,” said a statement from Iran’s ambassador to the UN in Vienna Kazem Gharib Abadi.
“No access for UN nuclear-watchdog”, Iran declared https://t.co/aARJ6BfVr5 pic.twitter.com/XfKZxvw5HU
— Middle East Tribune (@MidEastTribune) March 4, 2020
It comes a day after a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in which it reprimanded the country for refusing access to two sites which diplomats believe could be connected to Iran’s historic nuclear activity.
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Gharib Abadi also accused the US and Israel of trying to “exert pressure on the Agency… in order to distort the proactive and constructive cooperation” between the IAEA and Irani authorities.
Israel has claimed that a trove of information obtained by its intelligence services contains new information on a previous nuclear weapons program in Iran.
The two sites that the IAEA was denied access to were among three locations that the agency had been raising questions over since last summer.
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In a second report issued on Tuesday, the IAEA reported Iran was continuing to breach the terms of the 2015 nuclear accord with world powers but did not report any restrictions in access to nuclear facilities.
The latest moves from Iran appear to be more about ramping up pressure on European powers scrambling to save the JCPOA, rather than serious steps toward building a nuclear weapon. Trump has insisted that squeezing Tehran with economic sanctions would change its behavior, but it’s only become more aggressive amid rising fears of war between the US and Iran. The recent refusal to place a check on its nuclear program indicates that it is working on enrichment.
AFP with inputs from GVS News Desk