Reports came out on Tuesday that the United States and three European countries – France, Germany, and the UK – handed out an anti-Iran draft resolution in the IAEA BoG and some Arabic media claimed that the resolution had enough backing to be passed.
In the meantime, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet called on the BoG to warn against Iran’s nuclear program by passing the resolution, which is indicative of the Zionist Regime’s influence on the hasty measure.
The draft resolution, as seen by some media, calls upon Iran “to act on an urgent basis to fulfill its legal obligations and, without delay, take up the (IAEA) director general’s offer of further engagement to clarify and resolve all outstanding safeguards issues.”
Some sources say that the draft would be put to vote on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning (local time), describing the tone of the draft as not so harsh which didn’t seem enough to send Iran’s case to the United Nations Security Council.
The IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi issued a one-sided report last week accusing Iran of failing to provide the agency with “legally credible” answers to questions about its findings of nuclear particles in three undeclared locations.
Grossi and the Western countries accuse Iran of hiding nuclear activities based on fake allegations made by the Zionist Regime. Iran has categorically rejected the allegation and emphasized that it reserves the right to peaceful nuclear technology as an NPT signatory and a member of the IAEA.
“Iran has not provided explanations that are technically credible in relation to the Agency’s findings at three undeclared locations in Iran. Nor has Iran informed the Agency of the current location, or locations, of the nuclear material and/or of the equipment contaminated with nuclear material, that was moved from Turquzabad in 2018,” Grossi claimed yesterday at the beginning of the BoG meeting.
“Unless and until Iran provides technically credible explanations for the presence of uranium particles of anthropogenic origin at Turquzabad, Varamin, and ‘Marivan’ and informs the Agency of all current locations of the nuclear material and/or of the contaminated equipment, the Agency cannot confirm the correctness and completeness of Iran’s declarations under its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement. Therefore, the safeguards issues related to these three locations remain outstanding,” he added.
He also told reporters after the meeting that it was in Iran’s interest to settle the outstanding issues to move forward.
He said that he neither supported nor rejected the resolution prepared by the US and the E3 and the decision on that was in the authority of the members of BoG. However, his rhetoric suggested that he wasn’t that much against the proposed resolution although trying to support the continuation of talks with Iran.
Iran has time and again warned that it would properly respond if the IAEA deviated from its technical nature and independence and entered the Western-Zionist game over Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said last week that Iran would respond strongly and appropriately to any “non-constructive” movement in the IAEA BoG meeting.
A day later, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said that political interference in technical affairs of the IAEA was “non-constructive”. Iran-IAEA technical cooperation and the agency’s repetitive confirmation of the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program could be reversed at once and through a hasty political statement.
Meanwhile, China’s foreign ministry cautioned against undermining the existing cooperation between Iran and the IAEA through “countermeasures” against Iran in the ongoing meeting.
Amirahbdollahian protested Grossi’s trip to the occupied Palestine ahead of the BoG meeting in a phone call with the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. He said that the visit contrasted the agency’s principle of impartiality and technical and professional approach.
He also talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on phone, saying the US and E3’s ‘non-constructive’ measure would disturb the talks in Vienna to revive the JCPOA.
The Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi said in an exclusive memo to IRNA that the IAEA is pursuing these issues based on unfounded, fake information the Zionist Regime has provided them.
“Although not obliged to answer the questions raised based on fake, invalid documents, Iran has voluntarily provided the IAEA with all required information and supporting proofs as well as the required access and answers to its questions. This level of cooperation by Iran is proof of its goodwill for clarification. Iran could avoid giving access and handing supporting information if it wasn’t willing to cooperate. Unfortunately, the agency’s invoking fabricated documents and supposing them real has led to invalid, unfair assessments,” he added.
“After the JCPOA was signed in 2015, 22 percent of all inspection performed by the IAEA throughout the world was allocated to Iran which constituted the severest verification in 20 years as said by the agency’s 2021 safeguards report,” according to Kamalvandi.
He also said that the IAEA’s 18 consecutive quarterly reports confirmed Iran’s constructive cooperation, as proved by Iran’s providing access to the IAEA’s inspectors.
The agency shouldn’t turn into an instrument for some government to advance their policies, the Iranian official warned, adding that closing eyes to this will damage the IAEA’s impartiality, professionalism, and independence.
The truth is that the outstanding issues between Iran and the IAEA are associated with the safeguards agreements-related issues dating back years ago. Contrary to the broad machination by the West and the Zionist Regime, these issues have nothing to do with nuclear weapons.
Asked about the speculations surrounding Iran’s access to weapons-grade nuclear materials yesterday, Grossi emphasized that Iran’s enriching activities weren’t secret and the agency was informed of and inspecting the activities.
He also said that the Zionist Regime’s war minister Benny Gantz’s remarks on Iran’s efforts to build underground facilities was nothing new because the former head of the AEOI Ali-Akbar Salehi had told that his country was planning to construct more underground sites to install more centrifuges.
Considering the Fatwa of Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei forbidding production, proliferation, stockpiling, and using weapons of mass destruction along with the unprecedented clarification by Iran and a strong verification mechanism used by the IAEA, the Islamic Republic of Iran has nothing to conceal and has no need to a nuclear weapon for various strategic reasons.
However, the talks in Vienna to revive the JCPOA have come to a standoff because of the US’s bias, excessive demands, and inaction in making a decision and it has no way but to resort to such measures as proposing anti-Iran resolutions in BoG.
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