TEHRAN- Abolfazl Amoui, spokesman for the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian Parliament, says that the cooperation between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is technical, according to Iran Press.
In an exclusive interview with Iran Press on the sidelines of the Parliament’s open session, Amoui criticized U.S. efforts to pass an anti-Iran resolution at the IAEA Board of Governors as Iran has reactivated certain aspects of its nuclear activities in response to the violation of the 2015 nuclear agreement, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Emphasizing that Iran is determined to expand its nuclear program, he said, "Iran's new steps to speed up nuclear activities and suspend the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol were a response to Westerners who did not fulfill their obligation to lift sanctions."
He stressed that Iran's new steps are in accordance to framework of paragraph 36 of the JCPOA which has provided a mechanism to resolve disputes and allows one side, under certain circumstances, to stop complying with the deal if the other side is out of compliance.
“The West must lift sanctions and fulfill its obligations, and the West is not expected to undermine Iran-IAEA cooperation,” Abolfazl Amoui remarked.
“Iran has a peaceful approach and Western countries must not use the IAEA Board of Governors for their goals otherwise it would have a detrimental impact on the IAEA-Iran cooperation process,” he warned.
On February 21, the IAEA and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) reached a temporary bilateral technical agreement under which Iran would continue to use cameras to record information at its nuclear sites for three months, but it would maintain the information exclusively. If the U.S. sanctions are lifted completely within that period, Iran will provide the footage information to the IAEA, otherwise it will be deleted forever.
Iran has threatened to end a deal struck with the UN nuclear watchdog temporarily salvaging much monitoring of its activities if the Agency’s board endorses the U.S.-led resolution, according to a Reuters report.
“Iran perceives this move as destructive and considers it as an end to the Joint Understanding of 21 February 2021 between the Agency and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Iran purportedly said in its letter to the IAEA, according to Reuters.
The West is planning to table a motion at the IAEA board in the current week condemning Iran for reducing its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.
According to the Guardian, Russia’s ambassador to the IAEA, Mikhail Ulyanov, has said “the common responsibility of all 35 governors is to ensure that the debates (even heated) do not negatively affect diplomatic efforts aimed at full restoration of the JCPOA.”
Iran has been insisting that if the sanctions are lifted it will immediately reverse its nuclear decisions.
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