Araghchi: Any move against Iran at IAEA will be met with ‘appropriate response’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned on Tuesday that any “unwise and destructive decision” at the UN nuclear agency against Iran will be met with an “appropriate response” from Tehran.
The Iranian foreign minister in a phone call with his Japanese counterpart Takeshi Iwaya said that the responsibility for the consequences of such move at the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) falls on those who instrumentalize the UN agency for their political purposes.
There are reports that the United States, Britain, France and Germany plan to submit a draft resolution to the 35-member board on Thursday, creating a window to trigger the snapback of all UN sanctions on Tehran under the 2015 nuclear deal before the mechanism expires in October.
The resolution, which Iran views as a politically motivated step, would accuse Iran of failing to meet its obligations under the agreement.
Referring to Iran’s principled position on safeguarding the “legitimate interests and undeniable rights” of the Iranian people to benefit from peaceful nuclear energy, Araghchi criticized the “provocative move” by the US and the three European countries in putting forward the anti-Iran resolution amid ongoing nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
Araghchi reiterated that Iran will never move toward production of nuclear weapons and will not back down from its rights to peaceful nuclear energy.
Pointing to Japan’s balanced positions in its foreign policy, Iran’s top diplomat expressed hope that Japan and other IAEA member states would take appropriate stances and measures to strengthen the path of dialogue and engagement.
The spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi also warned on Monday that Iran will take retaliatory measures if the IAEA adopts the resolution.
Kamalvandi said Iran has warned in previous resolutions, but they did not pay attention, and the result was that we increased the production of 60 percent enrichment by 7 times, launched 20 chains, and installed advanced 13th-generation machines.
The Japan’s foreign minister welcomed the continuation of Iran-US talks and emphasized Iran’s legitimate right to peaceful nuclear energy.
The IAEA Board of Governors has started its regular June meeting at the Agency's headquarters in Vienna. Representatives from the 35 member countries of the IAEA Board of Governors are participating in the crucial quarterly meeting which began on Monday and will last until Friday.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi delivered an introductory statement to the meeting on Monday, during which he called on Iran to fully cooperate with the agency after he claimed that the agency has found man-made uranium particles at three undeclared locations in Iran.
“Unless and until Iran assists the Agency in resolving the outstanding safeguards issues, the Agency will not be in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful”, Grossi said.