Iran asks IAEA chief to avoid politically-tainted approach

A senior Iranian official urged International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano to drop his politicized approach towards Iran's peaceful nuclear activities. "We expect Amano as a technical expert on the international scene and the one in charge of a technical body to avoid politically-driven attitudes and interact (with Iran) within the framework of IAEA's technical duties," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Araqchi said in his weekly press conference in Tehran on Tuesday. He reminded that Iran has always had full cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog agency within the framework of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and other IAEA-related agreements, and said, "But if the Agency expects anything beyond this (from us), it is, then, required to find a new framework for such cooperation." His remarks alluded to the IAEA's demand to send inspectors to visit Iran's Parchin military site. Iran has announced that the UN inspectors may be allowed to visit the military site but only after Tehran and the IAEA finalize the framework of a modality plan for cooperation. Iran says the framework of the modality plan should once and for all clarify the measures that Tehran should adopt, and the other side's undertakings should also be clear and definite vis-à-vis those measures. Meantime, Araqchi said as long as no such action plan and framework is in place, "Iran doesn't accept to meet demands beyond its international undertakings". "Mr. Amano should be asked why the negotiations have not progressed," Araqchi stressed, implying that the IAEA evades specifying such an action plan, while it insists on the fulfillment of its demands beyond Iran's international undertakings. He underlined Iran's readiness to still continue the talks with the IAEA, but said no specific date has yet been fixed for negotiations between the two sides to proceed with their differences. Iran and the IAEA wrapped up their latest round of talks on Tehran's peaceful nuclear program late May. Their talks focused on a technical framework for cooperation. Iran's Residing Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency Ali Asqar Soltaniyeh and Head of IAEA's Department of Safeguards Herman Nackaerts jointly presided over the meeting in the Austrian capital. The IAEA inspectors have conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities but have never found any evidence showing diversion from peaceful purposes in the Iranian nuclear energy program. Iran has repeatedly announced that if its rights to use the civilian nuclear technology are recognized, the country will be ready to remove alleged concerns about Parchin military site, stressing that Parchin is just a military site and has never been used for nuclear purposes.