Political, unbalanced: Iran says IAEA report drafted under pressure
Iran Press TV
Saturday, 31 May 2025 6:08 PM
Iran has denounced as "political" and unbalanced a report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, which it said has been drafted under European pressure.
Iran's Foreign Ministry and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) issued a joint statement on Saturday in response to the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) accusing Tehran of stepping up its production of highly enriched uranium.
"The repetition of baseless allegations that cannot lend credibility to these claims, along with excessive expression of concern about this matter, is merely an excuse for political maneuvering against the Islamic Republic of Iran," it said.
It added that the illegitimate Israeli regime possesses a nuclear arsenal while it is not a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). However, Israel is threatening to attack the peaceful nuclear facilities of an NPT member state, it noted.
"Unfortunately, the director general of the Agency has not taken any action despite his legal responsibilities and the repeated requests of the Islamic Republic of Iran to condemn these threats," the statement pointed out.
In its latest report, the IAEA claimed that Iran has sharply increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent, close to the roughly 90 percent level needed for atomic weapons.
In its quarterly report, the agency said that as of May 17, Iran possesses an estimated 408.6 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60 percent, marking an increase of 133.8 kilograms since the previous report in February.
According to the report, Iran's total amount of enriched uranium now exceeds 45 times the limit authorized by the 2015 agreement - formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action -- and is estimated at 9,247.6 kilograms.
In the joint statement, Iran expressed its regret at the publication of the politically-motivated report and voiced its explicit protest at its content.
It emphasized that the IAEA report goes beyond the responsibilities of the agency's director general and is in contradiction to the professional requirements of international bodies, including the principle of neutrality.
The statement criticized the IAEA for failing to reflect the true level of Iran's comprehensive cooperation with the agency.
"In this report, the [IAEA] director general repeated previous biased and baseless accusations by extensively using forged documents provided by the Zionist regime," it emphasized.
It also noted that the IAEA's claims about Iran's undeclared activities and sites dated back to past decades.
The IAEA report claimed that Iran has previously carried out secret nuclear activities with material not declared to the agency at three locations that have long been under investigation.
Iran's joint statement once again reiterated Tehran's continued cooperation with the IAEA within the framework of the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement and said the latest report by the UN nuclear agency contains references to minor issues which are irrelevant to the Safeguards Agreement.
It said Iran warns against any political exploitation of the contents of the IAEA report and once again emphasizes that nuclear weapons have no room in Iran's defensive doctrine based on a religious decree by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
It also reiterated that there are no prohibitions or restrictions on Iran's inherent and undeniable right to benefit from nuclear energy for peaceful purposes based on the fundamental principles of international law.
"Iran's enrichment program is solely for peaceful purposes and has been under the full supervision of the Agency and is completely transparent and consistent with the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement," the statement emphasized.
It added that if politicization and hypocrisy were not on the agenda of the European troika -- France, Germany, and Britain -- and the United States, the IAEA would not have prepared such an "unfair and repetitive" report.
In conclusion, Iran issued a warning to certain countries that seek to exploit its cooperation with the IAEA and its transparent and confidence-building approach in the Agency's verification activities or the current report during the Board of Governors meeting.
"Iran will take and implement appropriate measures in response to such an approach to safeguard the country's rights and legitimate interests, and the consequences and responsibilities will fall upon those countries," it pointed out.
The latest IAEA report comes as Iran and the United States have been engaged in indirect negotiations, mediated by Oman, since April to find a replacement to the 2015 nuclear agreement.
Iran showed the peaceful nature of its nuclear program to the world by signing the landmark deal with six world powers in 2015.
The JCPOA was derailed in 2018 by the US, which unilaterally walked out of the accord and launched its so-called campaign of maximum pressure against Iran.
Iran now wants guarantees that the US will remove all the sanctions and won't violate a potential new deal again.
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