TEHRAN – Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi emphasized that the Islamic Republic has no obligation beyond the terms of the IAEA safeguard agreement, Additional Protocol and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). “The director general expressed satisfaction over Iran’s compliance with its commitments (under the 2015 nuclear […]
TEHRAN – Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi emphasized that the Islamic Republic has no obligation beyond the terms of the IAEA safeguard agreement, Additional Protocol and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“The director general expressed satisfaction over Iran’s compliance with its commitments (under the 2015 nuclear deal),” Salehi told reporters after a meeting with Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Yukiya Amano on the sidelines of the 61st General Conference of the Agency in Vienna on Monday.
He said that during the meeting, he also expressed satisfaction over the UN nuclear watchdog’s impartial stance on the JCPOA.
As stipulated in the text of the IAEA’s Oath of Office, the head of the IAEA should act independently and not based on recommendations of others, Salehi said.
The senior Iranian official added that the country believes that the agency has so far remained loyal to the Oath of Office when it comes to the nuclear agreement.
Earlier in the day, addressing the general conference, Salehi slammed recent calls by the US government to inspect Iran’s military sites under false pretexts and said the US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, made a “host of unjustifiable, peculiar demands” in talks with Amano in Vienna last month.
In August, Haley traveled to Vienna to press the UN nuclear chief on her reading of Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA and asked if the IAEA planned to inspect Iranian military sites, something she has called for.
In a letter dated August 19 but released on August 23, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned about US lack of adherence to the nuclear deal.
Zarif has also said that Haley’s visit to the IAEA undermines “the independence and credibility” of IAEA inspectors.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) reached the 159-page nuclear agreement in July 2015 and implemented it in January 2016.
