IAEA chief criticized for partiality

Iran’s nuclear point-man warns International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Chief Yukiya Amano that his partiality may cost him his legitimacy.

“Mr. Amano should be careful to not lose his legitimacy due to his partiality in favor of a certain politics,” Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi said on Saturday.

In his interview with the German Der Spiegel on Saturday, Salehi gave a “friendly but serious warning” to Amano that Iran would not let itself be used as an instrument for hidden objectives.

Salehi said he wondered whether the IAEA chief was looking for an excuse to launch an attack against Iran.

“Does Mr. Amano want to associate his name with a war? Does Mr. Amano want a catastrophe?” AFP quoted the Iranian nuclear chief as telling the German magazine.

Earlier in September, Amano released his latest report on Tehran’s nuclear work in which although the “non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran” was once again confirmed, the country was urged to “cooperate in clarifying outstanding issues,” and also to “act strictly in accordance with the provisions of, and to ratify promptly, the Additional Protocol.”

He has also claimed Iran’s decision to bar the agency’s two inspectors would “hamper the inspection process.”

Iran barred two IAEA inspectors from entering the country in June on grounds that they had leaked information to the media before the official issuance of the agency’s report on Iran’s nuclear program.

In reaction to the IAEA chief’s report and his comments, Salehi said Amano won the agency’s election for secretary general last year with a very narrow margin because there was a notion that he could be easily swayed by certain countries.

“So far, Amano has unfortunately shown that he is not acting according to the agency’s regulations and exerts his personal stance,” Salehi expressed.

Amano claimed in his first report on Iran, released on February 18 and amid a US campaign to win international support for adopting sanctions against Tehran, that the IAEA had “concerns about the possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed activities” that could enable the Iranian military to develop a nuclear bomb.

His report came while the agency had in its previous reports confirmed the non-diversion of Iran’s nuclear program.