Iran's envoy urges IAEA Board to stop politically motivated debates

[News_Editor]

Iran's envoy urges IAEA Board to stop politically motivated debates

2011-03-10 06:08:47 GMT+7 (ICT)

VIENNA, AUSTRIA (BNO NEWS) -- Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's IAEA envoy, on Wednesday urged all members of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors to stop politically motivated debates.

According to the state-run IRNA news agency, Soltanieh said that instead the IAEA should open a new chapter of confidence building and collective work with the Islamic country.

The Iranian envoy added that all IAEA Board members should start cooperation to address the goals of the IAEA Charter in order to promote peaceful use of nuclear energy.

Soltanieh's remarks were a response to the comments of IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano. On Monday, Amano said that Iran still fails to provide necessary cooperation to prove its nuclear program is purely peaceful.

The IAEA director added that his agency continues to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material at nuclear facilities and locations outside facilities declared by Iran under its Safeguards Agreement but without Iran's necessary support.

Soltanieh called Amano's speech as politically motivated and called for and end to such debates. He urged that the IAEA director should conduct verification and give a factual report without any judgment or any recommendation.

"Such conducts put the impartiality of the director in jeopardy and politicizes the technical and professional nature of its statutory functions," added the Iranian envoy. "Iran is not suspending its nuclear activities which are all under Agency full surveillance and remain peaceful."

Iran has repeatedly claimed that its nuclear program has always pursued peaceful means and said it is a civilian path to provide power to Iran's growing population, as fossil fuel would eventually run dry.

However, the United States and many other countries have raised suspicion since the discovery in 2003 that Iran had concealed its nuclear activities for 18 years in breach of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

In June 2010, the United Nations Security Council imposed the Islamic country under a fourth round of sanctions over its nuclear program. The measures cited the proliferation risks of its nuclear program and its continued failure to cooperate with the IAEA.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the sanctions were illegal and downplayed any effect it might have had in the Islamic nation.

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