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Attempts to drag IAEA into the dispute about Iran nuclear deal are harmful - Russian SC

According to Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Alexander Venediktov, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action must not be used as a bargaining coin to satisfy some claims to Iran

MOSCOW, June 16. /TASS/. Attempts to drag the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into the dispute about the Iran nuclear deal do harm to the agency’s authority as all the questions to Iran have already been taken off the table, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Alexander Venediktov said in an interview with the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily on Sunday.

"I am sure that the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action - TASS) has no alternative and must not be used as a bargaining coin to satisfy claims of certain countries to Iran," he said. "It is necessary to stop attempts to once again to hype at the IAEA the topic of Iran’s alleged military nuclear research. The JCPOA made it possible for the Agency to remove all the questions to Iran which fact is confirmed by its regular reports. Any further speculation on that topic does harm to its authority," he stressed.

Russia’s Permanent Representative to Vienna-based international organizations Mikhail Ulyanov, said earlier addressing a meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors that Iran’s nuclear program was a model of transparency. He said the Russian side was satisfied with the IAEA’s confirmation of Iran’s compliance with its liabilities under the JCPOA.

The JCPOA, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, was signed between Iran and six international mediators (the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Russia, the United States, and France) in July 2015. Under the deal, Iran undertook to curb its nuclear activities and place them under total control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in exchange of abandonment of the sanctions imposed previously by the United Nations Security Council, the European Union and the United States over its nuclear program.

On May 8, 2018, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the deal and imposed economic sanctions seeking to stop Iranian oil exports.

On May 8, 2019, or exactly a year after the United States’ withdrawal, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared he was suspending some of Iran’s obligations under the JCPOA.