Speaking on the sidelines of the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Eslami said that the IAEA has 127 verified inspectors in Iran, and those who have been expelled have not come to Iran for years.
Back in September, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran had withdrawn accreditation from several inspectors, a move Teheran described as retaliation for “political abuses” by the United States, France, Germany, and Britain.
“On the other hand, this number is nothing compared to the number of IAEA’s official inspectors (in Iran),” Eslami stressed, adding that bolding Iran’s move is only aimed at serving the West’s political and psychological purposes.
He went on to say that the reason behind the expulsion of the IAEA inspectors was their harsh political behavior.
In response to the claim made by Director General of IAEA Rafael Grossi against Iran, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kan’ani said that the United States and the three European parties to a 2015 nuclear agreement have abused the UN nuclear watchdog with the purpose of achieving their own political objectives.
Earlier in September, IAEA’s Board of Governors issued a Western-sponsored statement that accused Iran of non-compliance with its safeguards commitments. The document, signed by 62 member states of the agency, called upon Iran to take steps to address outstanding safeguards issues and provide the IAEA with information concerning its new nuclear facilities.
Separately, the three European signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal, France, Britain and Germany, also issued a joint statement on the sidelines of the meeting of the IAEA’s Board of Governors. They accused Iran of non-compliance with the nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), even though it was the United States that unilaterally abandoned the deal in 2018 and put its fate in limbo
Saying that Iran follows its own programs according to IAEA’s regulations, Eslami added that Iran does not have any activity that the Agency does not supervise and is not aware of.
Once the sanctions are lifted, Iran will also implement all the provisions of the JCPOA, he concluded.
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