VIENNA (Reuters) – The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, condemned on Saturday Iran’s “disproportionate and unprecedented” decision to exclude several inspectors assigned to the country, thereby hindering the organization’s ability to oversee Tehran’s nuclear activities.
Tehran’s decision comes as France, Britain and Germany (E3) announced on Thursday that they would maintain sanctions against Iran’s ballistic program, which are due to expire in October.
Rafael Grossi made it clear that he considered Iran’s reaction to be excessive.
“I strongly condemn this disproportionate and unprecedented unilateral measure which affects the normal planning and conduct of the (IAEA) verification activities in Iran and openly contradicts the cooperation that should exist between the agency and Iran,” he said. Rafael Grossi said in a statement.
Tehran’s decision is authorized, the member states of the organization benefiting from a right of veto against the inspectors assigned to their country under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (TPN).
The IAEA, however, indicated that Iran’s decision was far from usual practices, explaining that Tehran had informed it of its intention to exclude “several” inspectors, without saying how many of them would be affected.
“These inspectors are among the most experienced in the agency and have unique knowledge of enrichment technology,” the organization said.
“With this decision, (Tehran) has effectively removed about a third of the agency’s group of most experienced inspectors designated for Iran.”
A Vienna-based diplomat said Iran had excluded all French and German members of the IAEA inspection team. It already no longer had any American or British members.
“I call on the Iranian government to review its position and return to the path of cooperation with the agency,” said Rafael Grossi.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy in Vienna, written by Arshad Mohammed; French version by Camille Raynaud)
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