(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) The spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI)
rejected allegations that Iran has agreed to give the agency access
to certain people during the visit of the IAEA Director General
Rafael Grossi to Tehran, trend reports citing mehr .
Behrouz Kamalvandi made the remarks in an exclusive interview
with Iran's official IRNA news agency, which was published early
Sunday.
Issuing a statement on Saturday, Iran and the IAEA affirmed they
had agreed to take steps to enhance cooperation and expedite the
resolution of outstanding safeguards issues between the two
sides.
The statement was released at the end of a two-day visit to Iran
by IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, during which he met
with Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi, Foreign Minister Hossein
Amir-Abdollahian and head of the AEOI Mohammad Eslami.
The two sides agreed that bilateral interactions will be carried
out in a spirit of collaboration, with Iran expressing readiness to
continue its cooperation and provide further information to the
agency to address the outstanding safeguards issues.
Asked whether the agreements conformed to a law approved by the
Iranian parliament in December 2020 to accelerate the development
of Iran's peaceful nuclear program, Kamalvandi said,“These
agreements [with the IAEA] are in no way in contravention to the
parliament's strategic law and will be followed up on in total
conformity with this law.”
The law, dubbed the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions
was adopted by Iranian lawmakers to counter sanctions imposed on
Iran by the United States and its Western allies, and promote the
country's peaceful nuclear program.
Under the parliament's law, the Iranian administration is
required to restrict the IAEA's inspections and accelerate the
development of the country's nuclear program beyond the limits set
under the 2015 nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), such as ending the voluntary
implementation of the Additional Protocol to the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The AEOI's spokesman rejected allegations that Iran has agreed
to give the agency access to certain people, saying,“During the
two days that Mr. Grossi and his accompanying delegation were in
Iran, no discussion was made of access to people and no text has
been drawn up on this issue.”
“Of course, even if such a request had been made, it would have
been definitely turned down [by Iran],” he emphasized.
Kamalvandi also explained about a 50-percent increase in the
IAEA's inspections of Iran's nuclear sites, saying,“Since
[uranium] enrichment to 60-percent purity level had been started
for the first time at Fordow [nuclear] facility, the number of
inspections had to increase in line with the Safeguards [Agreement
between Iran and the agency].”
“Basically, when the enrichment level increases or more
sensitive materials are introduced into a facility, the number of
inspections increases based on a mutual agreement between the two
sides,” he added.
Therefore, the spokesman said, the number of Fordow inspections,
which previously stood at eight, was increased to 11 in view of the
increased level of enrichment there.
The AEOI spokesman also rejected allegations about an agreement
with the agency on access to“three alleged locations” as many
times as the agency demanded, saying,“No discussion was made about
the frequency of [the IAEA's] access to three alleged
locations.”
“In view of the previous access to these locations, more
extensive access [to them] does not seem to be necessary, and the
agency has made no request [in this regard] so far,” he said.