Criticizing the UN unclear watchdog IAEA for a recent resolution calling on Iran to stop denying the agency access to two suspected former sites, Iranian Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Sunday Tehran will not allow the agency to “violate its legal frameworks.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution on Friday in which it raised pressure on Iran to let inspectors into the sites mentioned in two of its reports because they could still host undeclared nuclear material or traces of it.
The Islamic Republic will not allow the IAEA to “trample Iran’s rights and violate the legal frameworks,” said Ghalibaf.
While the resolution was put forth by Britain, France, and Germany, Ghalibaf accused the US and “the Zionists” of being behind it.
“They are looking to force Iran to enter talks so that maybe they could cover up their internal problems as well as find a way to slow down our progress in the defense and military sector,” the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted him as saying.
“We do not oppose diplomacy and negotiations, but we believe that negotiations with America are strictly harmful and forbidden,” said Ghalibaf.
He added that if Iran was to hold talks with European countries, it must do so with “utmost mistrust.”
“Some major powers and many other countries openly opposed the resolution. We also have information that many of the countries that voted in favor of the resolution did so under heavy American pressure,” Ghalibaf said.
The resolution was passed with 25 votes in favor. China and Russia voted against, and seven countries abstained.
Ghalibaf expressed gratitude to China and Russia for voting against the resolution.
In this April 9, 2009 file photo Iranian technicians work at a new facility producing uranium fuel for a planned heavy-water nuclear reactor, just outside the city of Isfahan, south of Tehran. (AP)
