SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Iran accuses UN nuclear watchdog of bowing to West's pressure
Tehran, Nov 26 (AFP) Nov 26, 2021
Iran has accused the UN's nuclear agency of bowing to pressure from its Western financiers to "discriminate" against Tehran, as strains persist ahead of new talks to revive the 2015 atomic deal.

"It's a reality. The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) doesn't deal with Iran as it should," Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told state television late Thursday.

He argued that organisations such as the IAEA were "under the influence of powerful countries" which "finance them and in exchange apply pressure on them".

In a phone call on Friday with EU diplomatic chief Josep Borrel, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said it would be "possible to reach a favourable agreement" if sanctions are lifted.

"We will participate in the Vienna talks in good faith and seriously," he said, while calling for "a serious and sufficient guarantee" that the United States will not leave the nuclear deal.

After a mission to Tehran this week, IAEA head Rafael Grossi said his talks with Iranian officials had been "constructive" but "inconclusive".

"In terms of the substance... we were not able to make progress," Grossi told reporters in Vienna where the IAEA is based.

Kamalvandi said the Islamic republic was "trying to stand up for its rights and to counter the negative image that they (the international community) are trying to fabricate about us".

Western countries "say we are seeking a nuclear weapon and that we must be prevented at all costs", he said.

"The nuclear industry is an essential industry and one to which we are committed. Above all, we must not give up but instead pursue our efforts," the spokesman said.

Grossi's visit came ahead of the scheduled resumption on Monday of negotiations between Tehran and world powers aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal that gave Iran sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.

The deal has been gradually disintegrating since former US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018.

President Joe Biden's administration, however, says it is working to return the United States to the accord whose other parties are Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
UK opens competitive bid for GBP 75 million orbital cleanup mission
UK invests $191 mn in European satellite firm Eutelsat
Bearings Used in Space Technologies: Engineering for the Final Frontier

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Atomic 6 receives 2M Space Force award to advance next generation solar arrays
ESA and Neuraspace develop autonomous satellite navigation technologies
Planet secures 240 million euro satellite services contract with German government

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
London, Paris tighten nuclear bond over US, Russia concerns
Iran says cooperation with UN nuclear watchdog will take 'new form'
Six killed in massive Russian drone, missile attack across Ukraine

24/7 News Coverage
Ancient zircon data reveals tectonic origin of Earth's first continental crust
Autonomous sub explores unexplored trench depths to reveal critical mineral clues
Europe launches first geostationary atmospheric sounder to boost extreme weather forecasts



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.