ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s nuclear chief on Monday claimed that Western countries exploit the capabilities of the UN’s nuclear watchdog as an excuse to mount a pressure campaign on the Islamic republic.
In a meeting with Rafael Grossi, head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Iran’s top nuclear official Mohammad Eslami said that Western governments are instrumentalizing IAEA’s reports by using them as leverage to force Tehran into caving to their demands by imposing sanctions and applying political pressure.
“By resorting to sanctions … these countries are trying to use the IAEA’s mechanisms to mount pressure on Iran,” Eslami said, as reported by the state IRNA news agency.
His remarks came a week after the IAEA slammed Iran’s move to withdraw accreditation from several experienced agency inspectors as “disproportionate and unprecedented.”
“Brutal political pressures exerted by Western countries on Iran will not bear fruit and the Islamic republic will not allow any politically motivated pressure to go unanswered,” Eslami added, urging Grossi to preserve the IAEA’s impartiality.
Important to engage with Mohammad Eslami, VP and Head of @aeoi_ir, during #IAEAGC. I reiterated @IAEAorg willingness to engage and make concrete progress in the spirit of the March 4 statement to provide credible assurances that 🇮🇷 nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful. pic.twitter.com/PvpKsQNs8m
— Rafael MarianoGrossi (@rafaelmgrossi) September 25, 2023
Under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran agreed to curb its nuclear enrichment program in exchange for much-needed relief from crippling sanctions.
But the deal began unraveling in 2018, when Washington, under former US president Donald Trump’s administration, unilaterally withdrew from the accord and re-imposed biting sanctions on the Islamic republic, who in turn began stepping up its nuclear enrichment efforts.
Tehran, however, has repeatedly denied that it seeks to develop an atomic bomb, saying that such a move goes against the Islamic republic’s doctrine.
Efforts to revive the deal have stalled, with the current US administration under President Joe Biden labeling the deal as “dead.”
On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that Iran is “serious” about resuming negotiations on the JCPOA if other signatories are prepared to do so, adding that Tehran is in contact with Washington to revive the agreement.
