Iran tells IAEA to end ‘double standards’ before nuclear talks can resume

Iran links future IAEA cooperation to impartiality, after deadly June conflict with Israel and US.

Iran’s president has warned the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to abandon its “double standards” if it hopes to restore cooperation over the country’s nuclear programme, amid an acute mistrust following Israel and the United States’ attacks on Iranian nuclear sites last month, and the UN nuclear watchdog’s refusal to condemn the strikes.

Speaking to European Council President Antonio Costa by phone on Thursday, President Masoud Pezeshkian said, “The continuation of Iran’s cooperation with the agency depends on the latter correcting its double standards regarding the nuclear file,” according to Iranian state media.

Pezeshkian also declared that “any repeated aggression against Iran will be met with a more decisive and regrettable response.”

Relations between Tehran and the IAEA have sharply deteriorated since mid-June, when Israel launched air attacks on Iran, hitting military and nuclear sites as well as numerous civilian areas. The attacks were then followed by US air raids using bunker-buster bombs. Iran retaliated by launching missiles and drones at Israel, triggering a 12-day conflict.

An Iranian missile attack on a US base in Qatar was the final act before a fragile ceasefire was declared by US President Donald Trump.

Last week, Pezeshkian signed a law suspending Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA.

The agency confirmed that its last remaining inspectors had now left the country, returning to the IAEA headquarters in Vienna. The agency said its staff had remained in Tehran throughout the conflict, and reiterated its intention to resume its monitoring work “as soon as possible”.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi described talks with Iran as a “top priority”, but admitted that his agency had not had access to Iranian facilities since the attacks. Tehran has accused the IAEA of enabling the strikes by issuing a resolution on June 12 – just one day before the bombing – accusing Iran of breaching its nuclear obligations.

Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes and denies seeking nuclear weapons. However, it has made clear that it no longer trusts the agency to act impartially.

Despite remaining a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), Iran insists that the IAEA failed to condemn the attacks by the US and Israel and instead chose to align with Western pressure.

US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce condemned Tehran’s decision to suspend IAEA cooperation, calling it “unacceptable” and urging Iran to “reverse course and choose a path of peace and prosperity”.

“Iran cannot and will not have a nuclear weapon,” she said.

Neither US intelligence nor Grossi ascertained that Iran was building a nuclear bomb.

Leaders of the BRICS bloc on Sunday sharply rebuked the US and Israeli bombardments of Iran in June, calling them a “blatant breach of international law”.

Source:

Al Jazeera and news agencies