Russia urges Iran-IAEA cooperation

Russia has urged Iran to maintain cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a day after Tehran rejected the agency’s claim that it had restricted UN inspectors.

“The IAEA must continue its work … Iran must fulfill the requirement of the IAEA,” RIA Novosti quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as saying on Tuesday.

On Monday, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano handed his latest report on the implementation of the Safeguards Agreement in Iran to the agency’s Board of Governors.

According to the supposedly confidential report that was made immediately available to the press, the agency confirms that it “continues to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran,” calling on Tehran to provide “necessary cooperation.”

Iranian officials have criticized the report for mixing technical issues with politics, stressing that Tehran has fully complied with IAEA regulations.

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran, like all IAEA members states, has the right to vet IAEA inspectors and bar those it believes are prejudiced.

Regarding the IAEA claim that Iran has denied inspectors access to its heavy water plant, Salehi argued such an inspection did not fall within the framework of the Safeguards Agreement between Iran and the agency.

Remarks of the Russian foreign minister were made following a meeting with his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner in Paris, two weeks after Russia delivered its first supply of nuclear fuel for the launch of Iran’s first nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr.

Tehran rejects Western allegations that it is following a military nuclear program, arguing that as a member of the IAEA and a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty it has every right to pursue a peaceful nuclear program.