BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 22. Iran has approved for the entry of 120 inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vice President of Iran and Chief of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Mohammad Eslami said, Trend reports.
He spoke to the reporters after the meeting of the Cabinet of Iran in Tehran on November 22, 2023.
The Vice President stressed that, as the specified number of inspectors have been granted access to Iran, the IAEA should refrain from repeating certain political issues.
Eslami also mentioned that, regarding the prevention of the entry of some IAEA inspectors into the country, the first is that they have not come to Iran for some years, and the second is that Iran has the right to accept or not the inspectors announced by the IAEA.
“The IAEA's activities in Iran are within the framework of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the monitoring of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 and the Convention on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The IAEA's latest information on Iran is based on the mentioned frameworks. The JCPOA states that if several parties fail to fulfill their obligations, the other party may suspend its obligations. In addition, the strategic action plan of the Iranian Parliament is being implemented,” he said.
Recently, some world media reports cited the IAEA as saying that Iran’s 60 percent enriched uranium reserves had increased from 6.7 kg to 128 kg.
Iran’s nuclear program was the subject of the JCPOA, a deal signed by Iran and the P5+1 group (US, Russia, China, UK, France, and Germany) on January 16, 2016. However, on May 8, 2018, the US withdrew from the JCPOA and imposed new sanctions on Iran as of November 2018.
Iran claims that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes, but the IAEA has reported that Iran has increased its highly enriched uranium by 27 percent in the last three months and now has 4,745 kilograms of enriched uranium. This is 15 times more than the amount allowed for Iran in the JCPOA.
Iran has been trying to resume talks with the other parties on its nuclear issue and revive the JCPOA. The main goals of Iran are to end the sanctions imposed by the US and Western countries, access funds frozen abroad, and resume its crude oil exports.
In late 2020, the Iranian parliament decided to implement a strategic plan to tackle the sanctions, citing the non-implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between Iran and six countries and the imposition of sanctions on Iran. According to the decision of the Iranian parliament, as of February 23, Iran suspended the implementation of additional steps and an additional protocol provided for in the nuclear deal. As a result, the control mechanism of the IAEA decreased by 20–30 percent.
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