Iran Parliament votes to suspend cooperation with IAEA, says IAEA credibility 'up for auction'
Tehran, June 25 (UNI) Iran has decided to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) until the Agency (IAEA) guarantees security of its nuclear facilities.
Iran which has been a member of the IAEA since 1958, said the Agency's international credibility is 'up for auction.'
Reports quoting Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the IAEA had put its international credibility 'up for auction' by not condemning the US attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
'The International Atomic Energy Agency, which refused to even marginally condemn the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, put its international credibility up for auction...the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran will suspend its cooperation with the IAEA until the security of the nuclear facilities is guaranteed,' he said.
Iran's MEHR News Agency (MNA) said Iranian Parliament had approved the suspension of cooperation with the IAEA after an overwhelming vote.
In today's open session of the parliament, during the consideration of the general outline of the plan requiring the government to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, lawmakers agreed to the general outline of the plan with 221 votes in favor, no votes against, and one abstention out of a total of 223 representatives present in the session.
The decision followed U.S. strikes on several Iranian nuclear sites, ''in violation of international law, including the United Nations Charter,'' MNA said.
Iran has said it reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interests, and people, with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) declaring that the attack violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and would not prevent Iran from developing its peaceful nuclear program.
MNA quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as criticising the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) for failing to protect Iran's peaceful nuclear program, saying that Tehran may change its stance regarding the NPT cooperation. He said Iran had tried to demonstrate its compliance with the Treaty but this Treaty had failed to protect Iran's peaceful nuclear program.
Twenty years of transparency and trust-building about Iran's peaceful nuclear program had not yielded positive results. Therefore, Iran may change its stance on the nuclear program and the NPT cooperation, he said.
Araghchi further said Iranians had made significant efforts to acquire peaceful nuclear technology. Therefore, no one would stop obtaining this technology.
Meanwhile, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said there is still a path for diplomacy. ''We must take it. Otherwise violence and destruction could reach unimaginable levels and the global non-proliferation regime that has underpinned international security for more than half a century, could crumble and fall,' he said in his statement to the Board of Governors of the IAEA.
Iran, Israel and the Middle East need peace, he asserted and said that for peace a number of steps need to be taken. All parties should return to the negotiating table and for that IAEA inspectors should be allowed to go back to Iran's nuclear sites and account for the stockpiles of uranium, including, most importantly, the 400 kg enriched to 60 percent.
He said IAEA inspectors remain in Iran ready to undertake the required tasks when agreed with Iran and reiterated that armed attacks on nuclear facilities should never take place.
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