Iran’s cooperation with IAEA to take ‘new form’

AFP | Tehran

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Iran said yesterday its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “will take on a new form”, expressing a desire for a diplomatic solution to resolve concerns over its nuclear programme.

Iran’s 12-day war with Israel last month, sparked by an Israeli bombing campaign that hit military and nuclear sites as well as residential areas, rattled its already shaky relationship with the UN nuclear watchdog.

The attacks began days before a planned meeting between Tehran and Washington aimed at reviving nuclear negotiations, which have since stalled. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said yesterday that Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA “has not stopped, but will take on a new form”, after the Islamic republic formally ended cooperation with the UN watchdog in early July.

Iran has blamed the IAEA in part for the June attacks on its nuclear facilities, which Israel says it launched to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon - an ambition Tehran has repeatedly denied.

The US, which had been in talks with Iran since April 12, joined Israel in carrying out its own strikes on June 22, targeting Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.

Araghchi said requests to monitor nuclear sites “will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis... taking into account safety and security issues”, and be managed by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

In early July, a team of IAEA inspectors left Iran to return to the organisation’s headquarters in Vienna after Tehran suspended cooperation.

The talks were aimed at regulating Iran’s nuclear activites in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Before agreeing to any new meeting, “we are examining its timing, its location, its form, its ingredients, the assurances it requires”, said Araghchi.