The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday asked Iran to fully cooperate with the agency and provide “precise information” about its stockpile of uranium nearly enough to produce nuclear weapons, and to grant its inspectors access to Iran’s nuclear sites.
A news report by the official IRNA news agency on Friday quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei as saying that Iran had informed the Vienna-based IAEA in a letter that, in addition to terminating the agreement reached in Cairo this summer, the Iranian government may take “other actions” in response to yesterday’s resolution.
Iran suspended all cooperation with the IAEA after the war with Israel. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi then reached an agreement with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on the continuation of inspections in early September in Cairo.
Baghaei did not immediately elaborate on what additional actions Iran would take, but further uranium enrichment by the country is a possibility.
He accused the IAEA of reinforcing “resentments” that the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany have against Iran.
The minister complained that the resolution did not mention the reason why Iran stopped the inspections, namely the attacks by Israel and the US on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June.
The IAEA resolution sets the stage for a likely further escalation of tensions between the UN nuclear agency and Iran, which has reacted strongly to similar moves by the watchdog in the past.
After a 12-day air war with Israel, Iran suspended all cooperation with the IAEA.
The attacks on Iran killed nearly 1,100 people in Iran, including military commanders and nuclear scientists.
After agreeing to resume inspections in September, the U.N. that month reimposed tough sanctions on Iran through the so-called snap-back mechanism contained in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, prompting an angry response from Tehran and prompting it to halt implementation of the Cairo deal, AP reports.
(Vijesti.ba / Fena)
