Iran threat as it rejects UN atomic agency’s demands
Iran’s foreign ministry called the decision by the UN atomic watchdog’s executive board “anti-Iran” and threatened unspecified retaliatory actions.
The International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday demanded that Iran fully cooperate with the agency and provide “precise information” about its near-weapons-grade uranium stockpile, as well as grant its inspectors access to Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The official IRNA news agency reported on Friday that foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei was quoted as saying that Iran had informed the Vienna-based IAEA in a letter that in addition to ending an agreement reached in Cairo in the summer, the Iranian government could take “other actions” in response to Thursday’s decision.
Iran suspended all cooperation with the IAEA following the war with Israel.
IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi later reached an agreement with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Cairo in early September to restart inspections.
Baghaei did not immediately provide details on what further steps Iran would take, but further enrichment of uranium is a possibility.
He accused the IAEA of exacerbating the “grudges” held by the US, UK, France and Germany against Iran.
The minister complained that the decision did not mention that the reason why Iran stopped inspections was due to the attacks by Israel and the USA on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June.
The IAEA’s decision paves the way for further escalation of tensions between the UN nuclear agency and Iran, which has reacted harshly to similar moves by the watchdog in the past.
Following a 12-day air war with Israel in June, Iran suspended all cooperation with the IAEA.
Approximately 1,100 people, including military commanders and nuclear scientists, lost their lives in the attacks on Iran.
Following an agreement to resume inspections in September, the UN reimposed crushing sanctions on Iran later that month through the so-called withdrawal mechanism included in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, drawing an angry response from Tehran and prompting a halt to implementation of the Cairo agreement.
