Tehran, November 29: Iran’s Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani warns world powers not to force Tehran into scaling down its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“If you keep up this ludicrous carrot and stick policy, Iran will make ‘new arrangements’ in its interaction with the Agency,” Larijani said in a parliamentary address on Sunday.
“The resolution passed by the Board of Governors shows that we must be more alert when considering their proposals. This motion shows that they had no intention whatsoever to negotiate a solution but were engaged in ‘political chicanery’,” he added.
Larijani advised the US and other members of the P5+1 (permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) not to assume that these “worn-out games” will give them a fresh opportunity to bargain with Iran.
The Iranian speaker’s comments came two days after the IAEA passed a new resolution that calls on Iran to halt the construction of its Fordo enrichment plant, located to the southwest of Tehran.
The developments come as some Western powers, spearheaded by the US, have been pressuring Iran to accept an inflexible nuclear draft deal which wants Iran’s Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) to be shipped out of the country for further enrichment and return to Iran to be used in Tehran research reactor.
Iranian officials rejected the UN proposal, first floated by the administration of US President Barack Obama, saying there are no guarantees that the country would in fact receive the fuel it requires.
Tehran says it is ready to accept the nuclear swap if it takes place within its own borders.
Ironically, the resolution follows a recent IAEA report which for the twenty-first time confirms the non-diversion of Iran’s nuclear program.
The report also said that Iran had allowed the Agency to carry out a full inspection of its under-construction Fordo uranium enrichment facility.
After IAEA inspectors carried out two inspections at the facility, IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei affirmed Iran’s pervious declarations by announcing that the watchdog found “nothing to worry about” regarding the site.
Even though the statement was positive, the Friday resolution did not go down well in Tehran where reports circulated that Iran’s Parliament (Majlis) was preparing to discuss the move and its impact on future cooperation with the nuclear watchdog.
——Agencies