Iran enjoys most transparent nuclear program among IAEA members: Envoy

Iran’s permanent representative to Vienna-based international organizations says the Islamic Republic has the most transparent nuclear program among member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as proven through numerous inspections of the country’s nuclear sites by the UN agency.

“The fact that 22 percent of all global inspections done by the IAEA has been carried out in Iran proves that Iran enjoys the most transparent peaceful nuclear program among the member states of the agency,” Kazem Gharibabadi said in an address to the IAEA Board of Governors on Thursday.

The envoy reminded that the supreme level of cooperation between Tehran and the agency had not come by easily to be “easily weakened as a result of a few parties’ myopic political interests.”

Iran key partner to UN nuclear watchdog: Grossi

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog describes Iran as a key partner to the agency.

He was referring to the United States and Israel’s immense pressure on the agency to try and find fault with the Islamic Republic’s nuclear work.

Under pressure from Israel, the US’ most prominent regional ally, Washington left a historic 2015 nuclear accord with Tehran and world powers two years ago. The US then returned the sanctions that the deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), had lifted, not even bothering to exempt food items and medicines from the illegal bans.

Still under Israel’s pressure, the agency cited “concerns” earlier this year about two Iran-based sites. Iran first refused access to the sites, arguing that the alleged information provided to the IAEA had been cooked up by Israel’s spy agency. Tehran, however, later allowed access to the sites on a purely voluntary basis and only to honor its cooperation with the IAEA.

“In order for the agency’s integrity to be preserved, its members should seriously avoid exerting any pressure on it,” Gharibabadi asserted.

The JCPOA’s “handful of enemies” came up with “baseless and unfounded” allegations about the Iranian sites after falling short of all pretexts to destroy the international agreement, he reminded, urging the agency and its Board of Governors to avoid falling for their plots.

IAEA's double standards favoring Israel

The Iranian official, meanwhile, criticized the double standards applied by the agency’s members towards the Israeli regime and its nuclear activities.

He pointed out two instances of singularity concerning Israel, the regime’s being the only Middle Eastern party that has refused to sign up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and its being the exclusive owner of nuclear weapons in the region.

Still thanks to the double-standard approaches adopted by some IAEA members, the regime has snubbed the entire international community and the IAEA’s requests to fall in line with the agency’s safeguards and allow inspections by its experts, the Iranian diplomat said.

“Israel remains the biggest source of concern for regional security,” Iran's ambassador added, noting that the regime possesses various types of weapons of mass destruction, has evaded similar treaties addressing these weapons, and recurrently threatened and attacked the countries around it.

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