West’s Push for Anti-Iran IAEA Resolution a Hasty, Political Move

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said western countries’ push for passing a resolution against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors was a “hasty and political” move.
He made the remarks in a phone conversation with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday in which they discussed a range of regional and international issues, ISNA reported. 
France, Germany, Britain and the United States recently sponsored a resolution to rebuke Iran for failing to give credible answers to IAEA questions about uranium particles allegedly found at three undeclared sites. 
Iran and the agency had agreed in March to settle these safeguards issues by early June, but the IAEA director general reported that Iran’s explanations were not justifiable. 
The resolution was passed on Wednesday with opposition from China and Russia, posing a new challenge to already stalled negotiations on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which the US quit four years ago and reimposed tough sanctions on Tehran, prompting the country to scale down its commitments. 
The talks have been underway since April 2021 in the Austrian capital Vienna to work out how the United States and Iran can resume compliance with the JCPOA, but have been paused for several months.
Guterres stressed the importance of continuing negotiations, describing the contents of the recent IAEA resolution as “merely advisory”.
He reiterated that diplomacy is the best course of action to resolve differences between the Islamic Republic and the other sides of Vienna talks. 
Russia’s representative to Vienna talks also said in a tweet that negotiations will now most likely continue to be in a states of stalemate for a certain period of time “after adoption of the not well thought out and counterproductive resolution on #Iran by the IAEA BoG.”
He added, however, that chances still exist to restore the accord. 
“It would be definitely premature to say that the deal is dead.” 

Int’l Reputation 

Iran reacted to the IAEA resolution by stopping part of its cooperation with the agency which went beyond its compulsory safeguards obligations. 
That included the installment of advances centrifuges and turning extra surveillance cameras off. 
Chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Vahid Jalalzadeh said the measures were taken as per the parliamentary law passed in February 2020 which called for curbs on the country’s cooperation with the IAEA unless sanctions were removed within a certain time frame. 
“We turned off the agency’s cameras and the Majlis supports the government’s move,” he said.
Under the very law, Iran had already stopped sharing the footage from those extra cameras with the agency until a possible lifting of sanctions. 
The lawmaker added that the western countries resorted to the IAEA as their tool after they failed to impose their demands on Iran in Vienna negotiations. 
“Now it is the agency who has sacrificed its international reputation for the unilateral demands of the US and several European states,” he said. 
“We will not compromise on the interests of the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation and it is the agency that must change its behavior.”
Following Iran’s reciprocal moves, the three European powers issued a statement, urging Tehran to cooperate with the agency. 
“These actions only aggravate the situation and complicate our efforts to restore full implementation of the JCPOA. They also cast further doubt on Iran’s commitment to a successful outcome,” they said.
Jalalzadeh highlighted their contradictory behavior, saying they claim that they seek to continue Vienna talks but adopt cruel measures against the country’s legitimate demands.