Iran warns of retaliation over European move at IAEA
Iran will take countermeasures if a new draft resolution by European countries and the United States at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is adopted, potentially paving the way for the country’s nuclear file to be referred to the UN Security Council, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said.
Reacting to the draft, Baqaei said the European countries appeared to turn to Iran’s nuclear issue whenever they fall short in other areas, or that the IAEA director general himself is making the agency available for political pressure on Iran.
“It seems that whenever the European countries fall short in other areas, they turn to the nuclear file, or conversely, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency himself offers himself up for exploitation so that they can exert political pressure on Iran,” Baqaei said during his weekly press conference.
He said the move would reinforce the legal position of Iran, China and Russia that the so-called “snapback” mechanism was illegal and could not be “applied".
Baqaei described the preparation of the draft as “a repetition of a harmful path” and said the three European countries (France, Germany, Britain) had been “sidelined" in relation to Iran’s nuclear file.
He added that Tehran had repeatedly advised the three European countries to learn from an Iranian lesson: “Trying what has already been tried is a mistake.”
He also stressed that inspections by the IAEA were no longer possible because US and Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities had blocked the way forward.
“The reason the IAEA cannot access Iran’s nuclear centers and facilities is the crime committed by the United States and the Israeli regime by attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. They themselves blocked this path and are now blaming Iran for the IAEA’s inability to access its nuclear facilities. This defeats the purpose,” Baqaei said.
The US, Britain, France and Germany are seeking a resolution by the UN nuclear watchdog’s board reporting Iran to the UN Security Council for the first time in 20 years, according to diplomats and the proposed text seen by Reuters.
If passed, the resolution would follow up on one adopted on June 12 of last year declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for not fully cooperating with an investigation into uranium traces found at undeclared sites.
Israel started bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities the next day, soon joined by the US Iran’s uranium-enrichment plants were destroyed or badly damaged.
Iran has not let IAEA inspectors return to the bombed sites since then due to safety issues.
A resolution by the IAEA’s 35-nation board reporting Iran to the Security Council would also be the culmination of a standoff over IAEA access to those sites, since the board has passed two resolutions in the past year demanding Iran declare its enriched uranium stocks and grant the IAEA full access to verify them.
"(The board) requests the (IAEA) Director General to transmit this resolution and the previously adopted resolutions ... to all Members of the Agency and to the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations,” said the latest resolution draft seen by Reuters.