TEHRAN, August 27 - Legal and International Affairs Deputy to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to Nikki Hailey’s attempts to pressure IAEA to inspect Iran’s military sites.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - Iran Deputy for Legal and International Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran Abbas Araghchi told a YJC reporter on Saturday: “Hearing such things from the US ambassador to the UN is quite odd, for it could easily undermine the credibility of the IAEA’s reports.”
Araghchi said pointing out IAEA’s previous reports: “US’ ambassador to the UN believes the reliability of the inspections to be limited to the amount of accessible sites for inspections granted to the IAEA by Iran, clearly this interference in IAEA’s affairs by the US will question the Agency’s independence.
He continued: “I think the proposed proclaims will raise questions on the IAEA’s performance worldwide, claiming that the validity of the IAEA’s reports depends on the investigated areas is clearly an attempt for raising doubt on IAEA’s performance; in addition, before Nikki Haley’s trip to Vienna she announced she will be attempting to pressure the UN, which clearly contradicts the IAEA’s impartiality.
The deputy referred to Minister of Foreign affair’s recent letter to the director of the IAEA saying Dr. Zarif and Dr. Salehi have given the necessary cautions that the IAEA’s performance should under no circumstances be affected by external pressure, thus such petitions are certainly to be dismissed given the IAEA already has the necessary means to inspect necessary sites; all 7 reports by the agency have so far confirmed Iran’s full adherence.”
Araghchi stressed: “If a country questions the IAEA’s performance and reports with biased requests and accusations toward another nation and states conditions for the validity of their reports, they are surely objected by the international community; we will also voice our discontent in the IAEA Board of Governors and request it be further looked into.”
The foreign affairs ministry official also told of US’ claim of Iran having undisclosed nuclear facilities: “This is a false accusation that was stated before as well, known as the PMD case; but after further negotiations and the JCPOA agreement, its invalidity was proven, dismissing the case.”
He mentioned that the repetition of previous statements by the US shows how desperate and fruitless their attempts are at finding a single act of contravention of the JCPOA by Iran.