SAEDNEWS: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says that his country will not engage with the International Atomic Energy Agency about its bombed nuclear facilities.
Iran will not accept zero nuclear enrichment under any circumstances, describing it as a matter of national pride and honor. “We have made great expenditures for it and have sacrificed several martyred nuclear scientists to preserve it,” said Iran’s top diplomat in a post on his X account.
“Iran considers any agreement to reduce the percentage of nuclear enrichment to zero as treason and will not accept it,” he emphasized.
Araghchi added, “In our interactions with the UN Nuclear Watchdog, we have nothing to do with the bombed nuclear facilities, and we only cooperate with the IAEA on the nuclear facilities that were not bombed within the framework of the Agency's regulations.”
Earlier on Wednesday, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi confirmed that inspectors have returned to Iran and carried out inspections at facilities unaffected by June attacks. “Our inspectors are back in Iran and have carried out inspections at facilities unaffected by June’s attacks, but more engagement is needed to restore full inspections. We remain in regular contact with Tehran and continue working toward a full return to normal verification activities,” Grossi wrote on his X account.
Grossi also noted that, at the Board of Governors meeting, “We are not asking anybody to draft a resolution,” and stressed that Iran and the IAEA must “focus on the work we need to do based on the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Safeguards Agreement.”