“We have not heard this statement from Mr. Grossi. The basis of cooperation with the IAEA is the law approved by Congress,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghai said at a press conference on Tuesday, in response to a question about letters from Iran, Russia and China to IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi and Mr. Grossi’s comments about closed-door negotiations.
Immediately after the US and Israeli attacks on nuclear facilities in June, Iran’s parliament approved a bill suspending Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), following a politically motivated resolution against the Islamic Republic that paved the way for the attack.
Baghaei added: “Some aspects of our cooperation with institutions are day-to-day cooperation in line with our interests, such as the issue of refueling the Bushehr power plant or monitoring the operation of the research reactor in Tehran. These things must be done, but the basis of cooperation with institutions is legislation approved by Parliament and based on decisions of the Supreme National Security Council.”
Iran’s SNSC suspended its cooperation with the IAEA in protest after the E3, or Britain, France and Germany, invoked a “snapback” mechanism supposedly built into the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Tehran, China and Russia view the E3 move as unfair and have vowed not to comply with it.
MNA