Iran’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Vienna has called on the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, to observe impartiality in reports conducted on the country’s nuclear activities.
The call was made in an explanatory note submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency dated March 5, 2024, which was released to the media on Tuesday.
The note came in response to reports submitted to the IAEA Board of Governors on February 24 by the IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi on verification and monitoring of Iran’s nuclear activities and on the Non-Proliferation Treaty Safeguards Agreement with Tehran.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran rightfully expects that the Agency conducts its reporting on verification activities in Iran based on the principles of impartiality, professionalism, and objectivity,” said the note in response to claims in Grossi’s reports that Tehran had not cooperated with the IAEA on verification issues.
The note said that Iran had fully complied with its obligations including the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement, adding that the country “has done its utmost to enable the Agency to effectively carry out its verification activities in Iran”.
The note also criticized Grossi for not duly separating issues in the two reports submitted to the Board of Governors, which included one on matters related to a 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, known as the JCPOA, and another concerning NPT Safeguards.
“As an example, verification and monitoring activities related to manufacture of centrifuges rotor tubes and bellows, which are defined in the scope of [the] JCPOA, should not be reported under the NPT Safeguards Agreement Agenda Item,” it said.
Iran’s UN mission in Vienna said that the country had ceased all voluntary transparency in its nuclear activities following the United States’ unlawful withdrawal from the JCPOA in May 2018 and after the European parties to the deal failed to fulfill their commitments under the agreement.
It said in its note to the IAEA that the decision to cease performing commitments was fully in accordance with Iran’s inherent rights under paragraphs 26 and 36 of the JCPOA.
