Iran allows in IAEA inspectors, ready for 'interaction or confrontation'

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Tehran has agreed to the visit by inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) simply to monitor refuelling of its Bushehr nuclear power plant warning that return of nuclear sanctions will negatively affect its limited cooperation.

IAEA inspectors are in Iran “only to monitor replacing the spent fuel of Bushehr nuclear plant”, he said, after the Supreme National Security Council agreed with their visit based on the Parliament’s legislation on limiting the relations with the agency.

“The new cooperation agreement with the agency has not been finalised. Iran and IAEA have so far exchanged ideas on the new modality of bilateral cooperation which is being prepared,” he told reporters following a meeting with members of the Parliamentary Committee of National Security and Foreign Policy on Wednesday.

The minister’s statements were made after the reaction of a number of lawmakers to the visit of the agency’s inspectors following the legislation which has suspended Tehran’s cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog.

The visit took place after two rounds of talks between Iran and IAEA in Tehran and Vienna in August while both sides have been working to finalise the new cooperation documents including visiting the civilian nuclear sites.

Iran retaliated by suspending its ties with the agency after Israel and the U.S. bombed its nuclear sites in June and criticized the UN agency for failing to condemn the attacks on its facilities under the agency’s safeguards.

Tehran slammed the IAEA for issuing a resolution on its non-compliance of obligations in June which Tehran says served as a pretext to attacks on the non-military nuclear sites days later.

The Iranian foreign minister also warned that Tehran is prepared for both scenarios of interaction or confrontation if France, Germany and the UK which are parties of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) decide to apply for re-imposition sanctions by the 31 August deadline.

“If the European powers activate the snapback mechanism on return of the UN nuclear sanctions, it will negatively affect Tehran’s cooperation with the IAEA or block it,” Spokesman of the Parliamentary Committee of National Security and Foreign Policy Ebrahim Rezaei quoted Araghchi saying.

In New York, UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric welcomed the presence of IAEA inspectors in Iran and expressed the hope that Tehran will totally cooperate with the agency and fulfill its obligations under Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

In the meantime, Tehran has stepped up its diplomatic contacts with Beijing and Moscow which similar to the European powers are the JCPOA parties, and as permanent members of the UN Security Council can veto its resolutions.

Russia and has proposed a draft resolution to extend for six months the Resolution 2231 on Iran’s nuclear sanctions which expires in October.

Iranian and Russian presidents are due to meet each other as well as the Chinese president at the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit meeting in Tianjin, China next week.

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