The Iranian parliament moved to ban the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from working with the Iranian government in inspecting nuclear facilities.
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said prior to the vote that the IAEA, “which did not even formally condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, has put its international credibility up for sale; for this reason, the AEOI will suspend its cooperation with the Agency until the security of its nuclear facilities is guaranteed, and Iran’s peaceful nuclear program will proceed at an even faster pace.”
Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA Director General, said the IAEA needs to return to Iran, explaining that he wrote a letter to Iran discussing the matter.
Reporters further asked Grossi about Iran’s threat to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), an international agreement to prevent the acquisition of nuclear weapons.
The move would be “very regrettable,” Grossi said, as reported by the United Nations. “I hope this is not the case. I don’t think this would help anybody, starting with Iran. This would lead to isolation, all sorts of problems.”
The IAEA director general said earlier this week that the agency does not know where nearly 900 pounds of possibly enriched uranium is located, as it is believed that Iranian officials relocated it prior to the strikes.
“We do not have information of the whereabouts of this material,” Grossi told Fox News, adding, “My obligation is to account for every gram of uranium that exists in Iran and in any other country.” He noted that Iran has an “obligation to report and account for all the material that they have, and this is going to continue to be my work.”
