Iran”s envoy to the IAEA said Wednesday his country would continue its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, expecting the agency to work within its jurisdiction.
The UN Security Council unanimously approved Saturday a resolution reiterating demands for Iran to halt uranium enrichment. The resolution did not however impose any new sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
“We will continue to cooperate with the agency, but it is important that the institution not take any action beyond its charter and the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement,” Iran”s IRNA news agency quoted Ali-Asghar Soltanieh as saying on the sidelines of the IAEA annual General Conference.
Soltanieh accused the United States of trying to impose duties on the IAEA beyond its charter, even though “the agency is a specialized institution.”
Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a report last month that the agency had not been able to make much progress on the issue of a possible military aspect to Iran”s nuclear program.
ElBaradei urged Iran to show full transparency and implement all measures required “to build confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program at the earliest possible date.”
The Islamic Republic is currently under three sets of relatively mild UN Security Council sanctions for defying demands to halt uranium enrichment.
The IAEA wants Iran to clarify the suspected links between uranium enrichment and tests of high explosives and missile technology allegedly being developed by Iranian scientists by granting access to sites, documents and the relevant officials.
Iran says its nuclear program is aimed purely at electricity production, and has pledged to continue uranium enrichment regardless of international sanctions.
