Iran: IAEA should avoid ‘wrong, biased reports’

Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Agency of Iran (AEOI), said that the IAEA “should not damage the constructive process created following the recent interactions between Iran and the agency”.

The agency should “avoid taking political stances that seek certain purposes and stop presenting wrong and biased reports,” he added.

In a statement on Sunday, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi claimed that Iran was failing to fully comply with a joint statement issued by the two sides on September 12 by refusing to allow the agency access to the TESA Karaj Complex, a centrifuge component manufacturing workshop in north-central Iran, Press TV reported.

According to a joint statement issued following talks between the IAEA chief and AEOI head, Mohammad Eslami, in Tehran on September 12, Iran agreed to allow the UN nuclear watchdog to service surveillance equipment installed at Iranian nuclear sites.

“The IAEA’s inspectors are permitted to service the identified equipment and replace their storage media, which will be kept under the joint IAEA and AEOI seals in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The way and the timing are agreed by the two sides,” the statement said.

Kamalvandi, however, explained that the joint statement has specified that the IAEA was to be allowed access to “identified equipment” at facilities, which exclude Karaj complex, from “service and replacing memory cards.”

Grossi and his colleagues well know that the joint statement does not “apply to the surveillance equipment (cameras) of the Karaj complex because it is still undergoing security investigations” as a result of the July act of sabotage against it, the AEOI spokesperson emphasized.

In reaction to the IAEA report, Kamalvandi also said Iran has sent a letter to the agency to protest the “unconstructive” move.

Separately in a tweet thread on Sunday, Iran’s Permanent Ambassador to the international organizations in Vienna Kazem Gharibabadi decried the IAEA report.

Gharibabadi said the report was not accurate and goes beyond the agreed terms of the joint statement.

Grossi’s report came as the Iranian nuclear chief has reiterated the country’s full and constant cooperation with the IAEA, urging the UN nuclear agency to remain independent and impartial and avoid politically-motivated decisions.

Source: Iran Daily