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UN-IRAN-NUCLEAR,LEAD
Iran says ‘no obligation’ to let UN nuclear watchdog into certain sites
VIENNA, March 4, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Tehran has no obligation to grant the
UN’s nuclear watchdog access to sites in Iran when it deems that requests are
based on “fabricated information”, Iran’s UN ambassador in Vienna said
Wednesday.
“Intelligence services’ fabricated information… creates no obligation
for Iran to consider such requests,” said a statement from Iran’s ambassador
to the UN in Vienna Kazem Gharib Abadi.
It comes a day after a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) in which it reprimanded Iran for refusing access to two sites which
diplomats believe could be connected to Iran’s historic nuclear activity.
Gharib Abadi also accused the US and Israel of trying to “exert pressure
on the Agency… in order to distort the proactive and constructive
cooperation” between the IAEA and Iran.
Israel has claimed that a trove of information obtained by its
intelligence services contains new information on a previous nuclear weapons
programme in Iran.
The two sites that the IAEA was denied access to were among three
locations that the agency had been raising questions over since last summer.
In a second report issued on Tuesday the IAEA reported Iran was continuing
to breach the terms of the 2015 nuclear accord with world powers but did not
report any restrictions in access to nuclear facilities.
BSS/AFP/RY/17:25 hrs