MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. Russia hopes that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopts an impartial approach to the monitoring of Iranian nuclear facilities, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
"We hope that the IAEA will be able to ensure the objectivity and impartially of the monitoring within the framework of its technical mandate, without getting politicized, without succumbing to absolutely perverted tricks by the Western camp," the diplomat said during a briefing. "We see this as a necessary guarantee of constructive cooperation between the agency and Iran the strengthening of which we have invariably supported," she added.
Zakharova was commenting on remarks by IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi who claimed that Iran may develop nuclear weapons. According to her, "such manipulations counting on presenting the IAEA as an accomplice or even the initiator of political attacks on Tehran, always pursue a single goal - present Iran’s nuclear program as the main threat in the Middle East which must be battled by any means."
That said, the diplomat noted that the West is trying to "get away with gross violations of the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 and the profound stagnation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran’s nuclear program." "The international community has a clear understanding that it was precisely the West that undermined an agreement on restoration while Tehran repeatedly indicated its readiness to return to the parameters of the joint plan in the event of reciprocal synchronized actions by Washington, Brussels and London," Zakharova stressed.
The diplomat explained that "neither the treaty, nor the agreement provide for any quantitative restrictions on peaceful nuclear development if all nuclear activities in the country remain under the agency’s control," while the Iranian nuclear program "has always been inspected to the utmost degree" by the IAEA.
Signing of JCPOA
The five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany struck a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 to address the crisis over its nuclear program. Then-US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018, while incumbent President Joe Biden has repeatedly signaled his willingness to bring the US back into the nuclear deal.
Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, the US and France have been in talks with Iran in Vienna since April 2021, seeking to restore the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in its original form. In November 2022, Grossi said the latest round of talks with Iranian officials ended in the Austrian capital without achieving any specific results.
In response to Washington’s withdrawal from the JCPOA, in 2020, the Iranian parliament passed a law outlining a strategic plan to remove sanctions and protect the Iranian people’s interests. As part of this plan, Iran scaled back several obligations under the nuclear deal, particularly by suspending inspections by the IAEA beyond the safeguard agreement related to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and prohibiting the use of stringent monitoring measures. According to Iranian officials, the West must return to full compliance with the JCPOA to restore monitoring mechanisms for Iran’s nuclear program.