Tehran Urged IAEA Chief To Be Professional, Stop Putting Pressure On Iran - Reports

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th February, 2023) The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Mohammad Eslami, called on International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi to maintain professional conduct and refrain from participating in a pressure campaign against Tehran after the agency's recent reports, Iranian broadcaster Press tv reported on Wednesday.

"We expect the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to maintain professional behavior and not be part of the pressure campaign against our country," Eslami was quoted as saying by Press TV.

It is noted that Eslami made such statements after the IAEA's last week report raising concerns over non-compliant configuration of nuclear equipment at Iran's Fordow nuclear facility. The agency's inspectors said that two cascades of IR-6 centrifuges for enriching uranium to 60% were interconnected in a manner that "differed significantly" from that declared by Iran in its report to the IAEA. Tehran said that the IAEA proceeds from outdated information and an erroneous judgment of one of the inspectors.

On January 24, Grossi said that Iran had failed to provide the IAEA with explanations on many aspects, as well as violated agreements under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

In 2015, Iran signed a nuclear deal, officially known as JCPOA, with the United States, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Germany. It required Tehran to scale back its nuclear program and drastically reduce its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief, including the lifting of an arms embargo five years after the deal was made.

In 2018, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA, saying that Iran had violated the deal by developing nuclear weapons in secret. In response, Iran suspended parts of its own obligations under the deal, demanding the US lift sanctions.

In December 2021, talks on the revival of the JCPOA resumed. However, progress on the deal was frozen by September 2022 due to a series of mass protests in the Islamic Republic, for which Tehran blamed the US and other Western countries.