Iran slams West’s anti-Iran statement at IAEA meeting, vows “fitting response”

Tehran: Reacting to the anti-Iran statement made at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors meeting, Iran on Wednesday vowed "a fitting response" to the "political move".

The statement accused Iran of non-compliance with its safeguards commitments. It claimed that Iran's actions remain in clear violation of its Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) commitments and stated intentions, and that Iran has continued escalating its nuclear program to "an alarming level clearly beyond credible civilian justification, and has displayed no will to implement the transparency commitments laid out in the joint statement agreed with the IAEA last March".

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said that Iran will respond to the move of the E3 group of France, Britain, and Germany as well as the United States, adding that exerting political pressure on Iran will backfire.

Kanaani noted that criticism levelled against Iran's cooperation with the IAEA in the statement came on the heels of significant progress in the cooperation between Tehran and the agency following the two sides' interactions since the beginning of the year.

Kanaani further said that Iran is committed to the principle of cooperating with the IAEA within the framework of the safeguards agreements.

It is a regret that the E3 and the US, which have "certain motives" behind their anti-Iran moves and have adopted hostile stances against the country, are abusing the technical cooperation between Tehran and the IAEA to achieve their political objectives, he said.

Iran signed the JCPOA nuclear deal with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of the sanctions on the country.

The US, however, pulled out of the deal in May 2018 and reimposed its unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments under the deal.

The talks on the revival of the JCPOA began in April 2021 in Austria's capital Vienna. Despite several rounds of talks, no significant breakthrough has been achieved since the end of the last round in August 2022.

With inputs from IANS