IAEA no place for political games, Iran’s Rouhani tells E3

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has once again warned the three European signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal against pushing ahead with a US-backed plan at the UN nuclear watchdog’s forthcoming board meeting, saying the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is “no place for political games.”

“The three European states should understand that the IAEA is a technical body and allow it to proceed with its own technical job in order for the recent good agreement between Iran and the Agency to remain on track,” Rouhani said at an event on Thursday.

“The Agency is not a venue for political games,” the president warned France, Britain and Germany — also known as the E3 — ahead of the voting session at the IAEA’s Board of Governors that is expected to be held on Friday.

He said Tehran and the IAEA have had good cooperation as confirmed by the Agency’s reports, advising the trio not to avoid attempts that would harm the “very good relations” between the two sides.

The troika of the European states have circulated a US-backed draft resolution for the upcoming meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors voicing “serious concern” at Iran’s reduced cooperation and urging Tehran to reverse the steps it has taken away from the 2015 nuclear deal in response to the US withdrawal and the re-imposition of the sanctions that the accord had lifted.

Iran has warned against the adoption of the anti-Iran resolution, with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif saying that the Islamic Republic has some options to take in case “reason does not prevail” on the other side.

On February 23, Iran stopped the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Safeguards Agreement that allowed the Agency to carry out short-notice inspections of the country’s nuclear facilities.

The measure was taken as part of a law, passed by the Iranian Parliament last December, requiring the government to suspend more of its commitments under the nuclear deal, formally named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), should the US fail to lift its sanctions by February 21.

However, in a goodwill gesture in support of diplomacy, Tehran reached a deal with the IAEA, under which it would continue to use cameras to record information at its nuclear sites for three months, but it would retain the information exclusively.

If the US sanctions are lifted completely within that period, Iran will provide the footage information to the IAEA, otherwise it will be deleted forever.

‘US, its sanctions to blame for reduced Iran-IAEA cooperation’

Rouhani further said, “Our nuclear activities are completely peaceful, as they have always been, and the Agency is carrying out its inspections” as part of the Safeguards Agreements, adding, “Of course, the United States and its sanctions against Iran are to blame if these inspections are not exactly what the Agency wants.”

Rouhani to Macron: Failure to seize chances of saving Iran deal to complicate impasse

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called on the parties to the 2015 nuclear deal not to miss the remaining chances to revive the landmark agreement.

He added that “if these sanctions are lifted, Iran’s relations with the Agency will grow warmer and [the watchdog’s] inspectors can carry out their desired inspections within the framework of law.

The US left the JCPOA in May 2018 under then president Donald Trump. Now, with a change of administration in the country, Washington says it is willing to rejoin the Iran deal, but wants Tehran to first stop its nuclear counter-measures before the US does so.

Tehran, however, argues that the US, as the first party that reneged on its contractual obligations, must first prove its willingness to return to the agreement by ending the “maximum pressure” campaign initiated by Trump and lifting its anti-Iran sanctions practically and verifiably.

The US under President Joe Biden has so far refused to meet the condition set by Iran, despite criticism of Trump’s futile Iran policy.

Rouhani added that “those who seek a diplomatic settlement of issues should know that the solution [to row over the Iran deal] lies in lifting the sanctions. Your sanctions are impeding diplomacy.”

The Iranian president said wasting time in reviving the JCPOA would not be beneficial to anybody, and that US would be “directly responsible” for the consequences of a possible loss of opportunities.  

Iran, he added, has already announced that it will immediately resume its JCPOA commitments once the US sanctions are lifted.

In a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, Rouhani called on the parties to the nuclear deal not to miss the remaining chances to revive the JCPOA, warning that any “unconstructive” move at the UN nuclear watchdog’s upcoming board meeting will complicate the stalemate surrounding the accord.

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