Iran criticizes IAEA unbalanced policy

Iran has criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for adopting a double standard in dealing with countries’ nuclear programs.

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali-Akbar Salehi said that the IAEA was not taking a balanced approach toward countries’ nuclear programs.

“Our criticism is that why certain countries are allowed nuclear weapons while some are denied the right to use peaceful nuclear energy,” ISNA quoted Salehi as saying on Friday.

The US, one of the world’s biggest nuclear powers, accuses Iran of developing a nuclear weapons program, an allegation rejected outright by Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The IAEA, in its several reports on Iran, has confirmed that it has found no evidence suggesting that the country is deviating toward a nuke program.

Iran has been under UN Security Council sanctions over its nuclear program.

Salehi called sanctions ineffective and said the fueling of the Bushehr nuclear plant, which will come on stream in the near future, was among the many instances that sanctions against Iran are futile.

Iran’s nuclear point man said that the Bushehr plant has a life span of 40 to 60 years, during ten years of which its fuel will be supplied by Russia.

He added that Iran needed fuel for the plant for another 30 to 50 years, hinting that the country would not stop uranium enrichment.

Iran started loading fuel into the Bushehr plant, its first nuclear power plant, on August 21.

Following the initial fueling of the plant, Western powers said that Iran did not need to enrich uranium domestically, arguing that Russia was there to provide all the fuel for the reactor at the plant.

Iran says it will continue its enrichment since it cannot depend on foreign sources forever to get the required fuel.