Baku, Azerbaijan, June 16
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran says accepting the implementation of Additional Protocol, aimed for unannounced visit of nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is not taboo.
"Some persons in the society try to make the Additional Protocol out to be taboo," Iran 's ISNA news agency cited The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) spokesman Behrooz Kamalvandi as saying June 16.
Iran implemented the Additional Protocol in 2003 for two years, but rejected that after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took presidency office in 2005.
He went on to say that protocols in such a high level of political negotiations should be construed as "higher might".
He noted that negotiations between Iran 's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and two U.S. ministers, namely John Kerry and Ernest Moniz, are of high importance.
The fact is that the issue of direct talks with the U.S. was put forwarded by AEOI chief Ali-Akbar Salehi, and the Supreme Leader accepted it, Kamalvandi said. However, the situation would have been better if the then president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did cooperate more, he said.
Referring to the Fordo facility, Kamalvandi said that the facility is not important because of enrichment, since it can only meet 1.5 percent of fuel needed for the Bushehr power plant. The importance of Fordo is that it is invulnerable.
The Additional Protocol allows unannounced inspections outside of declared nuclear sites and it is seen as a vital tool at the IAEA's disposal to make sure that a country does not have any hidden nuclear work.
While some Iranian MPs argue that the Islamic Republic can accept implementing Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if access to military sites is excluded, the country's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says selective implementation of the protocol is impossible.
Edited by CN