BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 19
Trend:
Iran's Presidential chief of staff said that the western countries exaggerated the issue of Iran's strategy to stop implementing the IAEA Additional Protocol.
The IAEA's director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, was due to visit Tehran on Saturday to try to persuade Iran to hold off. Grossi planned to hold discussions with Iranian officials "to find a mutually agreeable solution for the IAEA to continue essential verification activities in the country," said Fredrik Dahl, an agency spokesman.
“Apart from the Additional Protocol, Iran is a member of the IAEA safeguards regime,” Presidential chief of staff Mahmoud Vaezi said, Trend reports citing IRNA.
Referring to the goals of Grossi's visit to Tehran he went on to say that the IAEA wants to know whether, if we suspend the implementation of the Additional Protocol, there will be any damage to Iran's cooperation with the Agency.
He said that the Western countries have exaggerated the issue of non-implementation of the Additional Protocol because this is not an important issue.
“Iran will continue its cooperation with the IAEA. As soon as the other side returns to its obligations in JCPOA, Iran will return to its obligations and voluntarily re-join to Additional Protocol," he reaffirmed.
In January, Iran launched a 20-percent uranium enrichment process as part of Iran's Strategic Action Plan which was approved by the parliament in December 2020.
The Islamic Republic is further ratcheting up the pressure on the international community, reportedly telling the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it is scaling back cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog on inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites, which are required under the JCPOA.