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Iran has been cooperative with IAEA

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejects the claim that vetting certain IAEA inspectors indicates that Iran has not been sufficiently cooperative with the agency.

President Ahmadinejad said during an interview with NBC News on Wednesday that Iran’s barring of IAEA inspectors could not be interpreted as its lack of cooperation.

“We have gone beyond the law, and we have cooperated with them,” the Iranian chief executive said.

Elsewhere in the interview, the president rejected accusations that Iran was seeking a nuclear bomb and called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to deal with Israel’s nuclear program instead.

“They possess nuclear weapons, and they constantly threaten their neighbors,” he said. “And in the past year, they threatened Iran more than 10 times.”

President Ahmadinejad also shrugged off threats of further sanctions, saying Tehran was well capable of meeting its requirements.

“Even if the US administration increases the sanctions… 100 times more, and even if the Europeans join the United States to impose heavier sanctions, we in Iran are in a position to meet our own requirements.”

In June, Iran barred two IAEA inspectors from entering the country. The inspectors in question were not named.

IAEA Director General Yukia Amano said that Iran’s move would “hamper” the inspection process.

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi explained then that the two inspectors were barred from entering the country for passing “false information about Iran’s nuclear program to the IAEA and revealing information precipitately.”

Iran’s Ambassador to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh said that Tehran legally reserves the right to vet inspectors.

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