Grossi urges Iran to reconsider decision on IAEA inspectors

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday that Iran had withdrawn accreditation from several inspectors, a move Teheran described as retaliation for "political abuses" by the United States, France, Germany and Britain.

"We have to ask them to review this decision," IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said in an interview with AFP.

Claiming that failure to cooperate will carry severe consequences, he said, "If they do not cooperate with the IAEA, they will not get what they want: the assurances they want to see, the confirmation they want to see, the approval of the international community."

In response to the latest claim made by Director General Rafael Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) against Iran, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kan'ani said on Saturday that the United States and the three European parties to a 2015 nuclear agreement have abused the UN nuclear watchdog with the purpose of achieving their own political objectives.

Kan'ani said Iran has previously warned against the consequences of such efforts to politicize the UN nuclear agency.

In his statement, Grossi condemned what he called Iran's "disproportionate and unprecedented" move to withdraw the designation of the agency's several "most experienced" inspectors assigned to conduct verification activities in the country under the NPT Safeguards Agreement.

Last Wednesday, the IAEA’s Board of Governors issued a Western-sponsored statement which accused Iran of non-compliance with its safeguards commitments.

The document, signed by 62 member states of the agency, called upon Iran to take steps to address outstanding safeguards issues and provide the IAEA with information concerning its new nuclear facilities.

Separately on Wednesday, the three European signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal, France, Britain and Germany, also issued a joint statement on the sidelines of the meeting of the IAEA's Board of Governors.

They accused Iran of non-compliance with the nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), even though it was the United States that unilaterally abandoned the deal in 2018 and put its fate in limbo

Kan'ani rejected the politically-motivated statement, saying Iran and the IAEA have made “considerable progress” in boosting cooperation based on a joint statement issued in March.