“The agency has questions about three alleged sites that they say they have found uranium, and we are ready to provide answers to those questions,” Amirabdollahian told Al Monitor on Sunday evening.
He added, “These apparent baseless allegations against Iran, that have been put on the agenda of the agency [IAEA] need to be removed first. But we believe and accept that to do so, there has to be some technical work to be done. At the same time, the agency needs to behave and act technically.”
Amirabdollahian said that the problem Iran has with the IAEA is the fact that they act politically.
“So if the agency chooses to, instead, concentrate on only the technical issues, then we will definitely try to strengthen and add to our cooperation.”
The Iranian foreign minister also said that his country’s cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog “is still going on, especially when it comes to the safeguards. The agency’s cameras are there, and they are monitoring us.”
Amirabdollahian said that Iran turned off the cameras it had installed voluntarily in response to the anti-Tehran resolution at the IAEA four months ago by the US and three European countries of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, namely Germany, France and the UK.
“We were in the midst of negotiating and all of a sudden they tabled a resolution against Iran.”
He also said that Iran’s nuclear activities constitute 2% of global nuclear activities, with all being within a peaceful framework. That’s while, he added, 37% of all IAEA surveillance and monitoring is conducted on Iran.
According to Amirabdollahian, this means that after all parties return to the JCPOA [the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action], once again, Iran has to grant all access to the IAEA, “access that goes beyond safeguards.”
The nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, was thrown into disarray in May 2018 when the United States, under former president Donald Trump, withdrew from the accord and reinstated sanctions on Iran.
Talks to revive the JCPOA began between Iran and the remaining parties -- the US participated indirectly -- in Vienna in April 2021 and continued for a year. Iran has time and again said that it wants guarantees that the US does not pull out again of a revived deal.
In response to a question on Iran’s concerns and the guarantees it wants and whether they can be given in the form of a kind of engagement on issues like Iraq, Syria and Yemen, Amirabdollahian told Al Monitor that Iran is referring to the experience it had in the past when it talks about guarantees.
“Trump's decision to withdraw from the deal was something in violation of international rules and regulations. What we're facing is that the Americans are telling us they cannot guarantee for the next administration in office in the United States,” the top diplomat said.
He added, that is again contrary to the international norms and conventions.
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