Tehran, July 04: An Iranian nuclear official says the country expects Japan’s Yukiya Amano, who will soon take on as the new UN nuclear watchdog chief, to stay impartial.
“Iran expects the new director general to help countries use peaceful nuclear energy and increase their cooperation according to the guidelines of the agency’s charter, independently and without bias,” Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh, said in a Friday interview.
His comments came after the Japanese envoy won the required two-thirds majority vote to replace Mohamed ElBaradei as the next Director General of the IAEA.
On Thursday, Amano finally managed to beat his South African rival Abdul Samad Minty by 23 votes to 11 at an IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, Austria.
In the last round of voting in March, Amano had failed to gain the necessary advantage over the developing world’s preferred candidate Minty, despite the backing he received from industrialized states.
Amano will officially replace ElBaradei in November.
In his interview with Iran’s Students News Agency (ISNA), Soltaniyeh wished success for Amano in his new post.
The Iranian envoy also pointed out that Tehran was adamant on “continuing to honor its commitment of cooperating with the UN nuclear watchdog.”
Iran’s nuclear program has been a hot topic in the international community in recent years. The country says its work is directed at the civilian applications of the technology. The West, however, accuses it of pursuing nuclear weaponry.
The Iranian work is monitored by the UN nuclear watchdog.
—–Agencies