Tehran to IAEA: No Access to Nuclear Facilities

By Staff, Agencies

Ebrahim Azizi, head of Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, stated that the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] delegation expected to visit Iran next week will have no access to the country’s nuclear installations.

He emphasized that the team will be authorized exclusively and solely to hold “technical and expert-level talks” with Iranian officials and experts.

“According to the laws passed by Parliament, Iran will not let physical access to its nuclear facilities under any circumstances,” he said.

“Also, no inspector from the IAEA team or any other foreign organization will be allowed to be present at our country's nuclear sites,” the Iranian lawmaker added.

Azizi stated that the restrictions are final and irreversible, and that the government is obligated to fully adhere to them.

Issues such as granting access to Iran’s nuclear facilities or permitting inspections requested by the IAEA are not on the agenda of the government and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran [AEOI], he said.

During a press conference on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said that no IAEA inspectors are currently in Iran.

He also noted that Tehran’s cooperation with the UN’s atomic watchdog is regulated based on the recent law.

The upcoming visit by IAEA officials to Iran is meant to discuss the “method of interaction” with the agency, given the recently approved legislation, the spokesman said.

"We are facing exceptional circumstances, as the facilities of a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty [NPT] have been illegally attacked by two nuclear-armed regimes," he said.

"Unfortunately, the IAEA did not remain impartial, failed to condemn the attacks, and instead issued a report that provided a kind of political ground for making excuses,” he added.